Stuck On A Berg
by SilentLurker
Summary: (Takes place in The Death Cure) The Berg has broken down and Jorge, Brenda, Thomas, Newt, and Minho are stuck inside. While Jorge is busy most days trying to fix it, and Thomas is busy thinking of Teresa and having no problem announcing this to Brenda's face, Brenda is feeling more dejected and alone then she has in a long time. Who will be there to take away her pain?
1. Chapter 1 The Bad News

**Stuck On A Berg**

A/N: Well hey thar! :D This is my first time writing a _Maze Runner_ fanfic. I just started reading these books like, what was it, last week? I dunno. BUT I've read all of them except for The Kill Order and I LOVE THEM! (_MOMENTARY SQUEE!_) Sooo, yeah. I have a million more fanfics I want to write for this book series, but I already have another fanfic I'm currently working on, and a thing called a "life" that I'm obligated to keep up with, so I guess I'll just have to settle for this story for right now.

GAHH I'm so excited to write this! ^-^

Okay, a little bit about the story: So Jorge, Brenda, Thomas, Newt, and Minho are stuck inside the Berg (in the middle of the desert) while Jorge tries to fix it. There will be multi-pairings, and Brenda is obviously the only girl so it's gonna be a love triangle thingy (no gay pairings, sorry! BUT YOU SHOULD READ IT ANYWAY! :D) And I'm gonna be doing a lot of backstory with Jorge and Brenda, and crap like that. Yeahhh.

Oh! And transitions between paragraphs will look like this: **oOoOo: **Like a cute little caterpillar thingy mcBob thing.

[Cover image by Katara7 on DeviantArt!]

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. :)

* * *

Chapter 1 - The Bad News Is...

Jorge curled his eyebrows.

"Hm... Hmmmmm..."

Brenda looked up from strapping in her seatbelt and raised one of her eyebrows. This didn't sound good. Not good at all.

"What's up, Jorge? Why aren't we in the air yet?"

"Yeah, and what's up with all the 'hmm' noises?" Minho asked, sounding annoyed and worried at the same time.

They were currently in the cockpit of the Berg, where there was also a small resting area (with couches and a coffee table in the middle, and where Newt, Thomas and Minho were sitting) that was connected to the cockpit. Jorge and Brenda were sitting at the control area, and Jorge was currently messing with a bunch of switches and looking very worried.

"Hey shuck-face, pass me that pillow." Minho told Newt, pointing to a fluffy purple pillow that was on the other side of Newt and on the blue couch they were both sitting on.

"Well what if _I_ bloody want it?" Newt asked, squinting at Minho and then snatching the pillow and holding onto it for dear life.

"Jorge, what the heck is wrong with the Berg?" Brenda asked, unstrapping her seatbelt and turning the chair to face her very stressed out companion.

"Dude, no way! I just ASKED you to give it to me!" Minho exclaimed. He turned to Thomas, who was sitting on a comfy-but-old-looking recliner next to the couch. "Right? Dude, you heard me, right? I asked him to hand it to me."

Thomas resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Uh, yeah you did, but-"

"I don't give a klunk what you asked; the pillow was next to me so it's_ mine_." Newt announced, slumping in his seat and shoving his face into the pillow. "Ah! So bloody fluffy..."

"Jorge! Speak to me!" Brenda practically yelled from up front, throwing her hands in the air out of anger. "What's going on with your stupid freakin' Berg?"

Minho stared at the fluffy purple pillow with an intensity that Thomas had never seen before. Before he even knew what his fellow Runner was doing, Minho had snatched the pillow away and shoved it up his shirt for safe keeping, and Newt had him in a headlock.

"Give it back!"

"NEVER!"

"JORGE!

Thomas switched his gaze between the blonde British boy trying to pry the purple pillow from out of Minho's grey muscle shirt, to the brown-haired Canadian girl shaking the captain's shoulders, who continued messing with random buttons and knobs and didn't even realize that she was there.

Thomas leaned his head back against his chair and sighed. Were they ever going to at least get off the ground and start flying to Denver?

"Will everyone SHUT UP?"

Thomas looked up. Jorge was staring at everyone with a look that said if you didn't shut up, he was throwing you off the Berg.

Brenda, who was standing up next to the captain (who was now standing up with one hand scratching his head and the other on his hip), stared at him with a half annoyed, half desperate look on her face.

"So... Wanna tell me what's going on?" She asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"Don't you mean tell _us_ what's going on?" Newt corrected her, still holding Minho in a headlock, his other hand successfully in the middle of pulling the pillow out of Minho's shirt.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Brenda waved him off, still focused on her Mexican friend.

Newt squinted at her.

Jorge clasped his hands together like he was getting ready to teach a class.

"Okay muchachos and muchacha, I have some good news and I have bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"

The room exploded with noise.

"What do you mean good news AND bad news?!"

"Jorge, cut the crap and tell us what's wrong!"

"Give me back my bloody pillow!"

"Please don't tell me the Berg is broken down... I just want to get to freaking Denver already."

Everyone quieted down when they heard that last one (Thomas' complaint). There was a lot of things that could go wrong in their Crank-infested, messed up world, but for their one means of transportation to be broken? Well...

Jorge motioned for everyone to be quiet, and when they were, he continued speaking.

"So which one? Good news or bad news?"

"Good news." Minho demanded.

"Good news? Okay, okay... Well, then... I can fix it." Jorge smiled sheepishly as everyone broke out in a chorus of complaining and whoe-of-me's and whatnot.

Minho jumped up from the couch, completely forgetting about the pillow, and walked up to the main control area where Brenda and Jorge were standing. He stepped in front of Jorge and crossed his arms.

"So how did it break? What, is it out of gas or something? Are you sure you can fix it? How soon-"

Brenda stepped right in front of him, forcing him to stumble back. "Minho, he's the freakin' captain of the Berg. Of course he can fix it!" She crossed her arms and glared at him. He glared straight back.

Before anyone could attempt to beat anybody up, Jorge stepped between them. "Ladies, ladies, calm down. I tried to figure out why my Berg stopped flying but I can't find the source. No, I still have a full tank of fuel, so that's obviously not why. We'll just have to hang tight for a couple of days until I can find out what's wrong with it, and then I'll be able to fix it and we'll be on our way."

He gave everyone a reassuring smile, pat Minho on the back (a little harder then necessary), and then returned to his seat at the front of the cockpit. "You kids go have fun. Just don't eat all of the food, mkay?"

Brenda rolled her eyes and then stormed out of there in a hurry. She didn't even glance at Thomas or try to makeout with him or_ anything_ on the way out.

Newt and Thomas looked at each other.

"Well this shucks."

Newt slapped his face, groaning out loud.

"Heh heh, see what I did there?" Thomas asked excitedly. "Instead of saying 'this sucks' I said 'this shucks' because, ya know, that's our language from the maze...and...stuff..."

Thomas cleared his throat.

Minho, who had been listening to everything, walked over toward them, shook his head in disapproval and made a "tsk, tsk, tsk" noise. "Gosh, Thomas, that was just disappointing."

Then he left.

All was quiet.

Newt turned to Thomas and sighed. "Well, Tommy, looks like its just you and me now."

Thomas nodded his head, wishing he was with Brenda instead of Newt.

"So..." Newt stroked the fluffyness of his purple pillow and smiled. Then a devious smirk appeared on his face and he looked up.

"Wanna play a prank on Minho?"

Thomas smirked, taking back his last thought immediately. He turned to Newt, who was smirking at him and already forming a plan in his head.

"Let's do it."

* * *

A/N: Yeahhh this chapter was super short (gosh I always make the _first_ chapter short o.o). ANYWAY, I hope you liked it! The second chapter is actually almost done so it should be on here soon enough. :)

_-Lurky_


	2. Chapter 2 Yellow Mexican Water Balloons

A/N: SO if you've ever seen Spongebob, then you've probably seen the episode "UGH" where they're cavemen and they discover fire. There's a part in here that reminds me of the part on that episode when Spongebob discovers fire. Yeah... just to let ya know.

I don't own Spongebob.

Or The Maze Runner.

:D

Chapter 2 - Yellow Mexican Water Balloons

Thomas stuck his head around the corner. He looked around to see if anyone was there, but the hallway was empty.

"No sign of Minho." He announced, and he and Newt crept down the hall as cautiously as they could.

"What are we gonna use to prank the bloody slinthead?" Newt asked, peeking inside every door they passed.

"I don't know, just keep your eyes open for something usefu-"

"Tommy, wait!" Thomas whirled around and stared at his friend in confusion, who had stopped at the door at the end of the hallway, located on the left side of the corner.

"What?!"

Newt elbowed the door. "This room has a buggin' load of clunk. There's probably something we could use in here."

Thomas sighed. He felt a little bit guilty just strolling into a random room, only to steal something that was going to be used to humiliate Minho. But, he thought to himself, it was for a good cause. And Jorge didn't have to know.

"Ok, open it." He walked up to the door and cast a weary glance around, hoping nobody would come randomly strolling through the hallway at that particular moment.

Newt opened the door and they stepped inside.

When they did the lights automatically turned on, like they're programmed to on Jorge's fancy-schmany (but broken down) Berg. Newt and Thomas' eyes widened a rather large amount.

It was a bedroom, just slightly bigger then the one Thomas, Newt, and Minho shared. It had the regular ol' pieces of furniture; a velvet two person canopy bed in the middle of the back wall, a wooden brown dresser on the left wall with a mirror hanging above it, a desk directly opposite of that on the other wall with really old, cracked, dark red paint covering it (that showed an ugly tan color underneath), and there were two doors on opposite side of the desk, one leading to a bathroom and the other leading to a closet.

The place was a disaster.

The mirror was completely shattered, only a few stray pieces still hanging. One of the dresser drawers was missing, and there were books and picture frames and other things littering the ground right next to it, like someone had wiped everything right off the dresser and not bothered to pick it up. The thin velvet sheets hanging from the top of the canopy were ripped and shredded and just completely torn apart. The desk was filled to the brim with random junk, completely random- ranging from a baseball bat to flower hair clips, a bent stethoscope, pieces for a baby's crib, to shredded pieces of a newspaper. They were everywhere- all over the desk and all over the floor- all over the room.

And there were photographs. Thomas looked up in horror as he realized the many, many photographs stuck to the walls. Everywhere. All of them were crooked, some of them were bigger them others, but most of them were small and rectangular. Only a few of them had color, but most of them were in black and white. And all of them were of people. Smiling, laughing, holding hands or being silly. Thomas took a close look at one of them that was right next to the front door, and he had a sinking feeling in his stomach when one of the people in the picture looked way too familiar for his taste.

It was a black and white photograph, and it had captured only three people; they were sitting down on some grass and smiling very brightly at the camera, like they were the happiest people in the world. The person in the middle, a young man with curly dark hair and a very small hint of facial hair growing, was holding hands with the person on his right; a beautiful young girl that looked about his age. She had long, wavy, dark hair and her eyes were very light. She was leaning her head on his shoulder, and she had a flower clip in her hair. The person on the other side of the young man in the middle looked incredibly a lot like him, but older and with shorter hair.

Thomas tried to ignore the horrible feeling of sadness that had washed over him. He was about to suggest that they leave when he turned around and saw that Newt was already digging through a pile of junk near the dresser.

His head was stuck inside the pile, so his voice was kinda muffled when he announced, "Man, this is a gold mine! Look, I found something. Don't know what the bloody heck it is, but it looks cool. Now let's go before Brenda finds us and kills us both."

"I couldn't agree more."

Once they left the Room Of Depression (Newt called it), they found a large bathroom to hide in and discussed what they had found. Newt laid it on the counter.

They both stared at it in anticipation, as if it would get up and do a backflip.

Newt coughed.

"Okay, well what _is_ it?" Thomas asked, clearly annoyed.

"I don't bloody know! The label is in Spanish." Newt retorted, crossing his arms in defense.

"It" was a medium-sized package of none other then... water balloons! BUT there were only four left. And three of them were _yellow_ (eew...the fourth one was green).

Thomas pulled one of them out of the package and stared at it. He waved it around in the air, banged it on the table, and then stretched it out as far as it could go until it snapped and hit him in the face. Newt started cracking up.

"Well I like it, whatever the bloody shuck it is." He grabbed one for himself and started playing with it.

Thomas glared at his companion and then focused his attention back on his balloon. Then he looked up.

He was staring at the sink. The faucet, to be more precise.

He looked back down at his balloon.

He looked up.

He looked back down.

Up.

Down.

He heard Newt hit himself in the face and then say "Bloody piece of clunk!"

And then Thomas had an epiphany.

"I got it!"

He wrapped the balloon around the faucet, held it in place and then turned on the water.

"What the heck are you-?"

"Just trust me."

And thus, water balloons were born.

**oOoOo:**

Brenda came around the corner, whistling and sharpening a small black knife with a much larger knife. She stopped when she saw the two boys walking in her direction.

They also stopped walking and stared at her. Then they hid the water balloons behind their backs, but not before Brenda had had a chance to see them.

"What are those?" she asked, placing her hands on her hips, with both of the knives sticking out away from her.

"What are what?" Thomas asked, glancing nervously at Newt.

Brenda squinted at them. "Don't play stupid with me. What are the things you guys are trying to hide behind your backs?" She started sharpening the smaller knife again.

Newt laughed nervously and kept his eyes on her knives as he brought his two yellow water balloons out from behind his back. Thomas did the same thing; holding a yellow and a green water balloon out in front of him for Brenda to see.

She raised her eyebrow.

"And you guys are holding water balloons because...?"

Newt sighed in aggravation; obviously not okay with having to tell Brenda that they had gone into a room and stolen something.

"Okay, look; we're playing a prank on Minho so we needed a bloody prop to humiliate him, okay? So we went into this room that was filled with random clunk and pictures and I found these rubber shuck things and Tommy filled them up with water and-"

"Whoa, wait a minute, _wait a minute_!" Brenda dramatically threw her hands in the air (Newt yelped and dodged the bigger knife) and stared at the boys in front of her like they had just turned into Cranks.

"You went into _Jorge's bedroo_m?"

Thomas and Newt shared a look.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was his room. Buggin' lunatic needs to hire a maid or something-"

"And you just _stole_ these balloons?" Brenda walked up to Newt and glared at him, like he was the mastermind behind everything. And, well, he kind of was, but how would Brenda know that?

Newt glared at her in return; his hands forming into fists around the balloons.

"Listen, Brenda, I doubt Jorge is gonna miss these so called '_balloon_' thingies. I doubt he even knew they were there- it was in a huge pile of crap!"

"You just don't understand, do you?" Brenda's grip on the knives were getting tighter, and her glare was getting less fueled with anger and more fueled with sadness. "Everything in that room- everything in Jorge's bedroom- is important to him. All that 'crap' is from his past. The reason he still has that stuff is because he _can't_ get rid of it." She finally let go of Newt's gaze and looked down at the floor, shaking her head slowly. The silence that filled the air was hollow and stretched on.

A water balloon from Newt's hand popped and water splashed down on one of Brenda's shoes.

She glared at him again.

He smiled nervously; his cheeks turning red.

"Um... sorry?"

"Brenda, how about we go return these- er- _balloon_ things to Jorge's room?" Thomas offered in an attempt at diffusing the situation. (He also didn't like the fact that Brenda and Newt were standing so close to eachother.)

Brenda turned away and continued sharpening her knives. "No, we shouldn't go into his room again. Whatever, just keep the stupid things. But if he realizes that they're gone, you guys are dead." she said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure that'll happen _real_ soon with Jorge busy fixing the Berg," Newt said sarcastically. He turned to Thomas. "Ready to prank Minho?"

Thomas glanced at Brenda, still standing with her back towards them, and then back at Newt. He smirked. "Ready."

Newt glanced at the bits of broken balloon parts on the ground next to Brenda's black combat boot and sighed. "Well, now we're only down to bloody _three_. Are you in or what?"

Brenda realized he was directing his question to her; asking if she wanted to join them. Well, she couldn't pretend like she didn't _want_ to. She turned and walked up to Thomas, who was momentarily surprised at this random decision of closeness. Then she smiled.

"What do you think; want me in your group?"

Brenda watched as Thomas's eyes changed from nervousness to excitedness, and that made her excited. The tingling in her stomach that happened whenever she was close to this boy began rising up, and she hoped that he would answer soon.

And at the same time she hoped that he wouldn't answer soon.

Thomas returned Brenda's smile and nodded his head.

"Of course I do. Do you even need to ask?"

Newt was about to puke.

Brenda just smiled and grabbed the green water balloon from out of his hand.

"Good, then. Let's do this."

**oOoOo:**

The door slid open and everyone stepped inside. Light flickered on, and there- sleeping on the couch and snoring louder then an elephant- was their target. Minho the Runner.

He was sleeping on an old green couch on the other side of the room, in the bedroom that he shared with Newt and Thomas (who were currently creeping towards him, a long with Brenda, and about to attack him with water balloons).

"This is gonna be brilliant!" Newt snickered, holding his balloon high over his head, ready to attack.

Brenda sharply turned her head towards him and put her finger to her lip. "_Shh_!" She whispered. "Don't wake him up."

They reached the couch. Thomas raised his balloon and then motioned to his friends that on the count of three, let the balloons fly. He started counting with his fingers.

One.

Two.

Three.

_SPLASH!_

Minho bolted upright faster then lightening; his body completely wet, his usually spiky hair now matted to his head, and his face completely wild and confused. His eyes bulged out of his head as he twisted it this way and that way, trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

"Shuckin' what?! _Who_? Shucka whata shuck shuck?"

He looked up and finally realized the people responsible for his violation.

Thomas, Brenda, and Newt were standing in front of the couch and laughing like they had never laughed before. In fact, they were laughing so hard that tears began to spring from their eyes.

Minho glared at them. He stood up from the couch and clenched his hands into fists.

"Oh, hardy har _har_. I see how it is! Gang up on Minho and dump a bunch of _water_ on me because I'm _asleep_!"

They just fell on the ground and continued laughing. Suddenly Brenda pointed at Minho's white basketball shorts, where the water had gotten wet on that _one particular spot_ making it look like he had wet his pants. Her and the boys promptly laughed harder and collapsed back on the ground, rolling around and cracking up like hyenas.

Minho's face turned tomato red.

"_That's it_! You guys are dead!" Suddenly Minho pulled a Launcher out of nowhere and aimed it at his friends. The three teenagers stopped laughing immediately and stood up.

"Minho, buddy, pal, shank," Newt started saying, sweating while he was talking and nervously scratching his head.

Minho didn't look amused.

Brenda cleared her throat and spoke, directing her words towards Newt and Thomas. "So, um, I'm thinking we should run now?"

Minho threw his head back and gave an evil laugh. "_Bwuahaha ha ha_!"

The three victims glanced at each other.

"I'm thinking you're right." Thomas replied.

**oOoOo:**

Jorge was in the cockpit. He was laying on his back and working on something underneath the control panel. He had a screwdriver in his mouth, dirt and oil smeared on his forehead and all over his hands, and he was sweating like crazy. He was just about ready to call it a day. Maybe he'll find out what's wrong with the Berg in the morning...

Suddenly the door to the cockpit burst open and the room (for the second time that day) exploded with noise. Jorge scooted out from under the control panel and sat up, raising his eyebrow at the scene in front of him.

Thomas, Newt, and Brenda were running around the resting area as fast as they could (stumbling around the couches and hopping over the coffee table), with a very angry-looking Minho running after them, holding a Launcher in his hands. All four of them were yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs, either for "Help!" or "We're gonna die!" or "Yes you are!"

Jorge gave an exhausted sigh.

He was about to intervene when suddenly the Launcher became too heavy for Minho to carry and it fell out of his hands, landed right in front of him, and he tripped over it and then fell flat on his face. The room immediately became silent.

Brenda, Thomas, and Newt walked over to Minho, who was collapsed on the floor and not bothering to move a muscle. Brenda bent down and poked his face. Minho's tongue stuck out and he made a "Blehhh..." noise.

"Well, I guess that's it then." Brenda declared, walking over to the blue couch and sitting down; pulling her feet up to the couch and stretching them out. She rested her hands behind her head and relaxed. "Best prank ever, minus the random launcher part."

Jorge stood up and walked over to the scene. He crossed his arms and made aggressive eye contact with each of the boys (except for Minho, who was still pretending to be passed out on the ground). When neither of them offered an explanation, he asked, "So, anyone want to tell me what the heck this was all about?"

Newt opened his mouth, but thinking quickly and realizing he would probably just blame it on himself, Thomas cut him off and said, "Newt and I decided to play a prank on Minho, and Brenda joined us, but he flipped out and chased us with a Launcher that he seemingly pulled out of- _Teresa_!"

Everyone turned their heads to the brown-haired boy, including Minho, who sat up from the ground. Brenda sat up and stared at him in worry. Thomas's eyes were wide and he was holding his head and staring into space. Something was defiantly wrong.

"You're saying he pulled the Launcher out of Teresa?" Newt asked, raising his eyebrow and looking confused.

"NO, Newt- just- shut up for a second!" Thomas turned away from everyone, still holding his head, and Brenda saw him clench his eyes shut.

"_Rude_." Newt squinted at him.

Minho stood up as Jorge walked closer towards the gang. "So, muchachos, anyone know what's going on with Thomas?" he asked, very confused that no one else (besides Brenda) was concerned with what was happening.

"Oh, I think I know what's going on," Minho announced, taking a part of his hair and wringing water out of it. "He's probably talking with his shuck girlfriend, Teresa. They can talk to each other in their heads."

Jorge nodded his head as if he understood.

"_Right_. Because _that's_ defiantly possible." he said; large amounts of sarcasm dripping from his sentence.

"It is when you know The Creators, I suppose." Minho replied dryly.

Suddenly Thomas turned around; his conversation with Teresa apparently finished. He looked rather happy.

Brenda looked rather displeased.

"So what did the girlfriend say? Is she coming to the Berg for tea and cookies?" Newt asked jokingly, and everyone snickered.

"Oh wait- let me guess- she said sorry for ditching us, and she's coming over to cook us a lovely dinner?" Newt said, and Minho and Jorge cracked up. Brenda smirked.

Thomas rolled his eyes and walked back towards the group.

"Actually, they_ didn't_ ditch us. They looked everywhere for us, but I bet you guys are too busy laughing to care."

"So they didn't ditch us, huh? Then what else did she say that made you so shuck happy?" Minho asked, raising his eyebrow. "What, did she promise to makeout with you or something?"

Thomas' face turned red.

"At least there is someone willing to makeout with me. No girl in the universe would kiss _those_ lips, not even your nose- even if they were a Crank."

"Ooooooh burn!" Newt snickered, while Jorge tried not to laugh.

Minho squinted at Thomas.

"Now that was just hurtful."

"And everything you and Newt have been saying isn't?" Thomas stared at the both of them with a serious face.

"Come on, Greenie, we were just joking!" Newt replied, throwing his hands out as if he had an apology tucked away inside his palms.

"Whatever, guys, just knock it off. Teresa is a million miles away right now, and that was the only conversation we're going to be able to have until I see her again. _If_ I see her again. I still don't know if she's on our side or not, but right now it felt like she was. Just leave her alone-"

"Why?"

Everyone jumped out of their skin for a second. The voice that had spoken- Brenda, who had mysteriously moved from the couch and was now standing at the door leading outside of the cockpit- was so quiet, so soft, and yet so piercing at the same time. They all looked up at her. She was just standing there with her hands falling limply at her sides; brown locks of hair had fallen and were covering her unnaturally dark eyes. She was staring straight at Thomas.

"Why... what?" Thomas asked, his voice almost failing him. A guilty feeling had taken root inside his stomach and would not leave.

"Why her? I thought... I mean, I knew you liked her, but then I thought you liked me, and things were going so well and all... I thought that you really did like me. All that time we spent together in The Scorch. And I could see it in your eyes, you really did look excited. But I guess... I don't know, I guess she is better then me. Prettier then me. You like her more, don't you? I don't know... I guess that's why..." A tear slipped out of her eye and ran down her cheek like a waterfall. Her stomach didn't feel the butterflies anymore. There wasn't anything anymore _to_ feel. Just despair.

Jorge couldn't move; he couldn't speak. He was in shock. He hadn't imagined anything like this ever happening to Brenda. And now that it was happening, he wanted to run over to her and place her safely in his arms. Maybe that would block out the horrible emotions she was feeling about Thomas? But no... of course that wouldn't work. That wouldn't help at all. He felt helpless. He felt an overwhelming sadness evoke him. Brenda's heart was breaking, and he could do nothing to save her.

Thomas... ah boy, _Thomas_ felt like crud. During his whole conversation with Teresa- the _Thomas, I miss you! I'm so sorry for everything. I needed to speak to you so badly_, and everything else- he hadn't even _thought_ about Brenda. He hadn't even thought about what he was saying to Newt and Minho, and it had resulted into this: Brenda asking him why he liked Teresa instead of her. But was that true? He wasn't even sure himself! But he_ did_ miss Teresa and he _was_ happy he had gotten to speak to her. Why did that result in somebody's heart getting broken?

"Brenda, I- she's not better then you, you guys are the same! I mean- no- you guys aren't the same but- well, you know what I mean, right? It's not that I like her more, or anything like that, I just _miss_ her more, okay?"

One look at Brenda's face and Thomas knew he had said something _totally_ wrong.

More tears began streaming down her cheeks, and before she did anything too embarrassing, she opened the door and ran off.

"Brenda! Wait!"

The door closed, and the room was silent.

Movement. Awkward coughs.

Newt was fluffing the purple pillow, Minho was dusting off the Launcher, and Jorge was fixing the recliner that had fallen over when Minho was chasing everyone.

Thomas remained standing, staring at the door, and thinking.

Thinking...

_What the heck just happened?_

* * *

A/N: Sooo yeah. :) Oh gawsh long chapter! This makes up for the first chapter, which was really super stinking' short. Erm, so I suppose Thomas/Brenda shippers won't be happy. D: (Hey, I'm a Thomas/Brenda shipper myself, so no worries, I won't do any of that yucky bashing crap.)

SO I BET YARR WONDERIN' WHO I'LL BEE PAIRIN BRENDA WIFF, HURR? ;D Tee hee hee hardy har har...

Keep reading and you'll find it! ;)

I love you. :|

:D

_-Lurky_


	3. Chapter 3 Chicken Flavored Ramen Noodles

A/N: Thank you Won'tforgetcanregret and Diana for the reviews! :D -gives yew two muffins-

Chapter 3 - Chicken Flavored Ramen Noodles

Breakfast on the Berg was as exciting as your everyday funeral. First of all, one of the ceiling lights in the galley(1) was constantly blinking on and off, making it look like a horror movie (Newt had remarked); secondly, _someone_ had gone and used the toilet down the hall for a very long time, making it overflow, so now there was a disgusting stench in the air within a ten mile radius, and Jorge had predicted it wouldn't die down until after lunch time; and third, Brenda, the only one who apparently knew how to cook, wasn't in her bed when Jorge had gone to wake her up (Jorge explained she liked sleeping in different compacted areas around the Berg), so they had to resort to eating toast with jam for breakfast.

It wasn't turning out to be a good morning.

The three teens plus the twenty-whatever-year-old sat at the marble table and ate their toast in silence. Minho, who had been eyeing a package of Ramen that was sitting on the counter a couple of feet away, was getting antsy. He looked down at his toast and huffed in annoyance. Then he looked up at Thomas.

"This is your shuck fault, ya know. If you hadn't gone and broken Brenda's heart yesterday, she would've actually _been_ here for breakfast, and we would have all had something good to eat besides this shuck toast!" He slammed the toast on the table, leaned back on his chair and crossed his arms (attempting to look cool or something like that), but he accidentally leaned back too far and he fell backwards in his chair and crashed on the floor.

Everyone snickered.

"Oh calm down, you slinthead. Leave Tommy alone; he probably had no idea what he was saying yesterday." Newt said, reaching across the table and grabbing Minho's toast to eat for himself.

Thomas silently agreed, but he remained quiet; no longer eating his toast but keeping his eyes on it and refusing to look at anything or anyone else.

Minho scrambled to his feet and sat back on his chair. Then he turned his gaze to Jorge.

"So where do _you_ think she is? You're the one who knows her best. I wanna find her and demand she make us some shuck Ramen."

Jorge gave him a look.

"And what makes you think I would tell you, even if I _did_ know where she was? Make it yourself, muchacho." And with that he stood up and left the galley, with Minho glaring after him.

"But I don't know _how_ to shuck make it!" he yelled, throwing his hands up in the air out of frustration. He turned back to his companions at the table and glanced between them, as if they had an answer to his problem.

Thomas shrugged.

Minho's stomach growled.

"Yeesh, Minho, that's bloody disgusting." Newt commented, snickering at his hunger.

Minho squinted at him. "Oh, shuck it. Need I remind you why it smells so gross in here? The _toilet_ disaster that _you_ caused?"

Newt squinted back.

Thomas rolled his eyes. "Will you guys shut up already? Why don't we go try to make the Ramen noodles ourselves? I'm sure there's probably instructions on it."

Minho waved him off; leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms (being careful not to fall backwards again). "Nah, I checked it already. Everything is in Spanish."

"Well then why can't Jorge try to make it?" Newt asked.

"Beats me, but he's busy trying to fix the Berg, anyway." Minho replied, looking grumpier with every passing second.

"Well then our only hope of eating any good food is getting off our bloody butts and finding Brenda." Newt announced, standing up and wiping the crumbs off the table and into his palm; bringing it over to the trashcan.

Minho stood up too. "I agree," he turned to Thomas and smirked. "And we'll need this shuck Greenie to apologize to her and makeout with her or whatever, otherwise she'll _never_ do it."

Thomas jumped up, looking nervous. "Wait- what? No way! That is never going to happen! Why don't _you_ go makeout with her, Minho?" he said, glaring at his fellow runner.

Minho waved his eyebrows up and down. "Oh, my pleasure! But unfortunately she's _blind_ to good looks, and she's into the ugly, geeky type who like to jump straight into Griever's like a maniac."

Thomas glared at him.

"So come on! We're finding Brenda- because _I want that Ramen_!"

**oOoOo:**

The supply closet was dustier than she remember it being; back before her and Jorge worked for WICKED. This was always her favorite spot to sleep in at night, or even just to be in when she needed to think. It was a very small supply closet, for extra food and water supplies, at the very far corner in the orlop(2). It still had the small makeshift bed she had made so many years ago; a thick cotton blanket on top of a bunch of food packages that were a foot off the ground, and a huge bag of flour that she used as a pillow. It was a little bit small for her, now that she was 17, but if she curled her legs up to her body and shifted around so that she was comfortable, then everything fit perfectly.

Brenda folded her arms around her stomach and closed her eyes to think.

Think...

What was there to think about?

She had already thought of everything last night when she cried herself to sleep.

_One_, she thought to herself, _Thomas doesn't like me. Two, he likes Teresa. He said he misses her. Three, anything that we ever had together is completely over now._

If _we even had anything together_, she thought, reopening her eyes and staring at the ceiling of the tiny closet.

Brenda curled her eyebrows.

On the ceiling of the supply closet, taped to the ceiling, was a locket. A heart shaped locked, taped just above the heart, with the pendant itself and the black chain hanging down from the ceiling.

Brenda knew immediately what it was.

There was no time to waste. She got up and started climbing the mountain of food supplies that was right next to her makeshift bed. A couple of packages fell as she climbed, and she almost fell herself, but she kept on climbing, determined to get that locket.

Finally she was at the top of the food mountain. She looked up and saw that she was a little bit over a foot away from the ceiling. She reached out with her hand and then quickly leaned back to the food, almost about to fall.

Brenda looked up at the locket and huffed in agitation; blowing hair out of her face. Why the heck had she put the locket all the way up there, again?

**oOoOo:**

The boys were still on the hunt. And thanks to Minho's genius ways, they had split up to look for Brenda, which would make finding her go a lot faster (in his mind, at least).

Minho was currently on the bottom floor of the Berg (there were only three floors). He was opening every door, yelling her name, and then shutting it and moving on; wasting no time. With every passing second, his stomach was growling louder and louder.

"Shut up, shuck stomach! We'll find her soon enough, and then we'll get our _food_." His eyes glazed over in thought of the chicken-flavored Ramen noodles.

He walked over to the very last door in the hallway and, without thinking anything unexpected would happen, he opened the door.

Brenda had jumped off the mountain of food and grabbed the locket in midair, and then right when poor unsuspecting Minho had opened the door, _CRASH!_

She had fallen right on top of him; her head knocking his and causing her to collapse on top of him, clutching the locket.

"Owww, my head," Brenda complained, opening her eyes and realizing the awkward situation she was in.

Minho opened his eyes too, rubbing his head, and then realized the same thing.

"The shuck? Get _off_ of me!"

"_You_ get off of me!"

"I'm not _on_ you, you shuckhead!"

_SLAP! _

Brenda stood up, wiping dust off her shirt, and then started taking the tape off of her locket. Meanwhile Minho, who was still on the ground, was trying to rub off the red mark on his cheek from where Brenda had slapped him. He was also glaring at her with much loathsome in his eyes.

Brenda finally got the tape off, and she stuffed it in her pocket to throw away later. Then she started moving slowly; holding the locket in her hands and staring at it with a lot of emotion in her eyes. She took a deep breath.

Minho stood up and sighed, dusting off his pants.

"Well _anyway_, the reason I came to find you is because I'm starving, and so is everyone else, and we really need you to come back to the kitchen with us to cook us some Ramen."

She didn't answer him.

"Oh, um... please?"

She still didn't answer him.

"Oh! And Thomas wants to apologize to you, also, so yeah..." Minho eyed her suspiciously, thinking that this sentence would clearly get her to snap out of whatever daydream she was dreaming of.

But she _still_ stared at the locket like she hadn't even heard him, or knew he was even there in the room with her.

Minho groaned in frustration.

"Brenda? Helloooo? Can you even hear me? What the heck is so special about that shuck necklace?" he demanded, wanting to just grab it from her and throw it against the wall.

She didn't answer.

"OH. MY. SHUCK!" He reached for the necklace but before he made contact, Brenda grabbed his arm and threw him against the wall.

"Don't you ever try touching this again, Minho!" She threatened, glaring at him and holding the locket against her chest. "That wasn't funny!"

Minho scrambled to his feet. "I only did that so you would snap out if it and actually answer me!" He noticed the hurt in her eyes, and he tried his best to be nicer. "Is that your locket? Are... are you okay?"

Brenda looked down and sighed. She opened the locket so both her and Minho could see the picture inside. After a few seconds, she shoved the necklace in his hands and walked away with her arms folded. Minho curled his eyebrows in concern, and then looked at the picture again.

It was a picture of five people, standing together and smiling brightly. There was a man and four kids. Three of the kids were boys and the fourth was a girl, who was the youngest, around ten years old. They all had similar features; brown hair, dark brown eyes eyes, etc. The young girl looked awfully familiar to Minho...

He looked up at Brenda, who had her back towards him. "Is... is this your family?"

Brenda didn't answer right away. When she did, it was a short answer. "Yeah. My dad and my brothers."

Minho looked back down at the picture. He felt a pang in his chest. He had never known _family_- a family for himself. The closest people he had ever had for a family were the guys from the Homestead.

"What about your mom?" He asked softly, sensing that this was a tender subject for her.

Again, she didn't answer right away. When she did, it was again a very short answer. To the point. "She left us when I was little."

Minho looked down at the locked, not sure what to say.

A few seconds later Brenda was back at his side, staring at the picture with mixed emotions in her eyes.

"That picture was taken a year before_ it_ happened. Before..."

She looked away and clenched her eyes shut.

"Before the Sun Flares?" Minho offered, trying to understand what had happened to her family, and how she had started traveling with Jorge in the first place.

Brenda shook her head. "No. Before my family was taken by WICKED."

"Oh."

"They were going door to door, checking people if they were infected. I wasn't. My dad and my brothers were. They didn't even _say_ anything. They just took them and left. Dragged them away. I was all alone, eleven years old and all alone..."

Minho didn't know what to say. What _could_ he say? "Gee, sorry that your family was taken and mostly likely killed by WICKED. Say, can you make me some Ramen?" Um, no. He didn't think so.

Brenda sat down on her makeshift bed and rested her head in her hands. Minho awkwardly sat down next to her. He stared at the picture in the locket, thinking about what had happened to her. Thinking about WICKED. Then he thought about his family, wondering if WICKED had done the same thing to them...

He hoped with all his heart that they hadn't.

Minho closed the locket and looked up at Brenda. "Well, hey, that's all in the past, right?" She looked up at him and he offered a small smile. "Besides, you have Jorge now, even though he is kind of a shuckhead." Brenda rolled her eyes but grinned, knowing he was joking. "And I guess now you have me, and Newt and Thomas. And once you get to know us, we're not so bad."

Brenda wiped her eyes. She took the locket from Minho's hands and shrugged. She stared at it for a second, and then looked up at him.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. You are kind of a shuckhead."

"_Hey_! I said _Jorge_ is a shuckhead!"

Brenda laughed. "Yeah, yeah, whatever." She set the locket down and then stood up. "Now come on. I'll teach you how to make Ramen so I don't have to be the only one who makes breakfast, lunch, and dinner."

Minho stood up and followed her out of the closet, closing the door behind him. "Aha, so you _were_ listening! You were just completely ignoring me!"

"Hm? Sorry, did you say something?"

"_Ha ha_, very funny."

"It was funny, see that's why you laughed."

"Yeah, whatever. I'm starving, so let's go make that Ramen!"

"Hm? Sorry, did you say something?"

"BRENDA!"

Brenda laughed and ran as fast as she could as Minho started chasing her, yelling,

"_Not funny_! You can run, but I'll catch you! Hey, you are running to the kitchen, right? To show me how to make Ramen? Brenda? WAIT! _BRENDA_!"

* * *

A/N: (1)galley: a kitchen on a ship, or in this case, a Berg. (2)orlop: lowest deck of a ship.

OKAY SO lately I've been in love with Ramen noodles. And I mean I've always loved the chicken flavored Ramen, but just recently I bought shrimp flavored and it is SO GOOD. I ran out of it yesterday tho. D:

I hope you liked this chapter! Makes you curious about who Brenda will end up with, hm? :) Mua ha ha ha...

_-Lurky_


	4. Chapter 4 Feeling Cranky

A/N: Thanks to **friskielover** for your review! ^-^ Haha yeah I know what you mean; I wrote that one part with Brenda and Minho and now I'm starting to ship them like crazy! Gosh, I always get sucked into random ships very fast. c: I. Am weak. D:

ANYWAY here's chapter four! Hope yall like it. :D

Chapter 4 - Feeling Cranky

It was a blazing hot day outside in the scorched desert world; where Cranks were hiding in the shadows of ruined office buildings and torn down restaurants, old and forgotten. The fractured structures were scattered miles away from each other, and in the middle of one particular large field of space was the Berg; temporarily defective and carrying five impatient people in it's stomach.

Although the impatient ones were safe and sound (and also cooled off with their fancy AC unit) inside the Berg, what they didn't know about were the many pairs of eyes that watched them night after night. The Cranks, hungry and restless for something new to destroy, watched them and waited. But why didn't they attack? Because they knew _he_ was on board. The one like them. The one called _Crank_.

**oOoOo:**

Newt entered the cockpit. Thomas, Minho, and Brenda were sitting around the coffee table and playing a card game with spoons. Judging by how loud and obnoxious Minho was being, it looked like he was winning.

"Newtface, mah man! Where the shuck have you been? Brenda taught us this game called Spoons, and it's AWESOME!" Minho announced, holding a spoon up for his British friend to see, and smiling widely.

Newt rolled his eyes and sat down on the recliner. "No where important. I think..." he racked his brain to remember a card game called Spoons before going to the Maze, but no such luck. "Ugh, never mind. What the bloody heck is Spoons?"

"You try to find four cards with the same number," Thomas explained, while Minho demonstrated by holding up the current cards he had in his hands. "And once you have all four, you grab a spoon and you make sure you're not the last one to do it."

"I've been winning so far the entire time, pshh, I guess it's because I'm_ so_ attractive." Minho said, trying to flip his spiky black hair to add dramatic effect (it didn't work). Brenda and Thomas shared a look and then rolled their eyes.

"Minho, there _is_ no winner, there's only a loser; how many times do I have to tell you?" Brenda told him, flicking him in the head.

"Hey! That hurt!"

"Wimp."

Minho stuck his tongue at her and spit, but his saliva kind of just spit out onto his own lap. Newt and Thomas blinked awkwardly.

Brenda slapped her forehead and sighed.

"ANYWAY, Newt, wanna join?" Thomas offered, patting the floor space between him and Brenda. He glanced at Brenda for a second and saw that she was pretty much looking anywhere but him. He looked back at Newt, feeling bad.

Minho wanted to slap _his_ forehead.

Newt shrugged and then sat down between his friends. "Sure, why not? I've got nothing better to do in this bloody place."

"That's the spirit!" Minho told him brightly, oblivious to his downcast feelings. Once Brenda fixed the cards back into one deck, they began to play.

The game went fast. Minho was jumping up and down the entire time, Brenda was completely focused on her cards, Thomas kept glancing at the three spoons in the middle of the cards and then back to his own cards, and Newt, like Brenda, was focused on his own cards, only with less enthusiasm and less speed.

Within a few minutes, a spoon had disappeared and then Brenda noticed and she grabbed one, and Minho and Newt noticed at the same time and they both went for the last spoon, and it was _almost_ in Newt's hands but Minho grabbed it at the last second.

The game was over. Hyperactive Minho started dancing around and singing, "Woohoo! Winner for the _fifth_ time in a row, babeh!"

Brenda smiled at him and shook her head, and Thomas threw his spoon on the table and announced with a sneaky grin, "Well if there _was_ a winner, then it would be me because I was the first to grab the spoon. But that doesn't matter. You guys didn't even _see_ me grab it." He laughed in glee.

"Pshh, who cares, because I've won more times then you, so ha!" Minho pretended to shred on an electric guitar, and he made the sounds with his mouth.

"DUDE! Rock band!" Brenda suddenly announced, getting on her knees and banging on the coffee table with two spoons.

Thomas started laughing as his friends were caught up in their own craziness, but then something happened that killed the moment and the laughter.

Newt attacked Minho.

Thomas and Brenda were frozen to the spot out of shock as Newt and Minho rolled across the floor and Newt tried to pin him against the ground. Brenda and Thomas stared at Newt's face; twisted up in something so savage, and it just didn't belong there. When Newt accomplished pinning Minho to the ground and he started punching his face, that's when Thomas and Brenda snapped out of it and ran over to help.

Thomas grabbed Newt and threw him away (guarding him to make sure he didn't resume his random attack), and Brenda rushed to Minho's aid. Newt had only managed in two punches before being pulled away, but that was just enough to give Minho a bloody nose. Brenda didn't have any extra cloth on her except for a red piece of cloth she used as an arm band, so she pulled that off and used that to soak up the blood. Minho sat up and tried to push it away, but she swatted his arm away.

"Minho, I need to stop the bleeding. Stop trying to act shuckin' tough." She said, applying pressure to his nose.

He didn't say anything, but he smiled at her use of the word "shuck".

They looked over at Thomas and Newt, who were standing about a foot away. Thomas was standing in between them so they couldn't see Newt's face.

"Tommy. Out of my bloody way. Now."

Thomas stood his ground. "What the _heck_ was that? Why did you do that? What is wrong with you?"

Newt glared at Thomas and almost pierced his eyes with his stare.

"What's... wrong with me? What's _wrong_ with me? Have you forgotten already? Here, maybe this will refresh your memory: I'm a bloody _CRANK_! That's what's wrong with me! And Minho over here is having such a great time- no problem at all- being stranded in the middle of bloody no where, while Jorge takes his whole _lifetime_ trying to fix this stupid thing, and you and Brenda are-" he turned his head to glare at Brenda, who flinched, not expecting the harsh glare. "You two are having your own stupid _romance_ problems- I mean come _on_ Tommy, seriously- and meanwhile I'M SLOWLY GOING MAD!"

He shoved Thomas out of his way and left the room, just like that.

Thomas stared at the door, for the _second_ time that week, thinking to himself and feeling remorse. How could he have forgotten about Newt being a Crank? It's not like he did forget; he was just too focused on other things to really think about it.

And now he went and pretty much told Newt straight up that he forgot, and well... who knows what'll happen now.

Thomas looked down at Minho and Brenda, who were still on the ground and dealing with Minho's bloody nose. He tried to push any jealous thoughts aside. _Focus on Newt_, he thought to himself._ I'll deal with whatever might be going on between them later..._

"I'm going to go talk to him." Thomas announced, heading towards the door.

"Woahhhh, hold the Grievers, are you so sure that's a good idea?" Minho asked, looking up at him with more blood coming down his nose. Brenda covered it with her now-even-more-red arm band.

Thomas nodded, not looking back. "Don't worry, I can deal with him if he freaks out again. But I really think I should just go talk with him and see if I can help him. He's my best friend, and I can't just leave him like this."

"Okay, good that. Just remember, I'm your best friend too, shuckface." Minho replied, his voice sounding nasal-ish because Brenda had pinched his nose. He squinted at her and she giggled.

Thomas nodded his head and then walked out the door.

It was quiet for a few seconds. Brenda found the last part of the cloth that _wasn't_ drenched in Minho's blood, and used that to wipe off the last of it. Minho stared into her eyes as she did her work thoroughly, noting how her eyes were an incredibly dark shade of brown. He broke the silence and asked,

"What color are your eyes?"

She gave him a look.

"Uh, they're brown?"

"No they're not, they're like _black_. How do you not know the color of your own eyes?"

"Well it's not like I look at my eyes every time I look in a mirror, and it's not like I look in a mirror every ten minutes... there, done." She leaned back on her knees and held the bloody red cloth in her hand, sighing. "Well, this sucks. Jorge is going to kill me."

Minho breathed through his nose, and then focused his attention on her very bloody arm band. "You didn't _have_ to use that, ya know. You could have just used my shirt. I'm sure you would've _loved_ to see me shirtless." He wiggled his eyebrows.

"Oh _gosh_... I'm so glad I used my arm band."

They both laughed softly and smiled. Then Minho asked,

"Why is Jorge going to kill you?"

Brenda stared at the red cloth and got lost in her memories, while Minho waited for her to answer. He was getting antsy.

"He gave it to me a few days after I first met him. When I was eleven."

"So this was around the time when your family..." Minho didn't finish his sentence, afraid she would get offended.

Brenda just laughed. "Yeah, when WICKED took them away... I was eleven years old, and living in my house alone. We didn't have any relatives living in the area, and any neighbors or close family friends that I knew had also been infected and taken... so I did the only thing I could think of. The stupidest thing that an eleven year old could do at that time..."

Minho was intrigued. "What, did you go raging into the WICKED facility with a gun and start shooting everybody?" he joked, smiling.

Brenda smiled regretfully at him. "Almost."

Minho dropped his smile.

"I packed a backpack with some food and water, tied my shoelaces _extra_ tight, and I took a bus to the WICKED facility that was there in town. They had just built it that year. I was going to go inside and _demand_ that they give me my family back. I know, I know, but I was eleven... Anyway, I didn't even get inside, heck- I didn't even make it to the front gate. There were guards everywhere posted around the compound and outside of the compound and walking up and down the streets because of all of the people getting infected, and they saw me and thought I was suspicious- little girl, no parents, walking towards their base- and so nobody would let me pass. I even kicked one of them and ran, but they still stopped me..."

Minho remained quiet with listening ears.

"I was out of money for the bus, and I didn't know how to get home, so I was just wondering the streets during the night, hoping I was getting closer to home, and scared out of my mind. Then... I got into some trouble. I walked past an alley and I heard a voice speaking to me out of the dark. It was a woman's voice, asking me if I was lost. I wasn't _completely_ stupid, so of course I sped up and started walking faster, but before I knew it I was being chased by a gang of female Cranks. The one who had first spoken to me kept yelling at me, telling me she just wanted me to be her daughter."

Minho raised his eyebrow. "What the shuck?"

"I know, I know... she kept yelling, 'I just want a baby girl; someone to take care of!' over and over again. It was _creepy_, but at the same time I had this feeling that she really did just want a daughter... anyway, I ran and hid in a graveyard, and that's where I bumped into Jorge. He was 20 at the time. I was hiding behind this one gravestone, and he was standing near a grave a few feet away from me, and he kept asking me what the heck I was doing, and I kept telling him to shut up or they'll find me, but he _wouldn't_ shut up, and so of course the gang of female Cranks found us and started chasing us, and he said to follow him, so I followed him into his Berg, and we took off."

Brenda smiled at the memory, messing with the red band in her hands and not seeming to care about getting blood on her hands. She looked up at Minho and continued.

"I told Jorge about what happened to my family, he told me that he was also alone, and ever since then we've been traveling together. About a week after we met, he started teaching me hand-to-hand combat, and then how to fight with knives. I accidentally cut my arm with a knife, and so he gave me this," she raised her red arm band in the air. "To wrap around it and stop the bleeding. I've kinda just been wearing it ever since. He told me it was his brother's arm band, but that's all he said. He doesn't talk much about his life before..."

It was silent for a few seconds. Brenda continued messing with the bloody arm band, lost in her memories. Minho stared at her, transfixed with her eyes, and at the story she had told. After a few seconds he looked down at the red arm band in her hands and sighed.

"Sorry about that. I'll wash it for you."

Brenda looked up at him and smiled. "It's fine, but thanks."

Minho returned her smile; his run of the mill, everyday, crooked grin that could always be mistaken as a smirk. Brenda noticed how dimples would appear on his face whenever he smiled. She couldn't deny how incredibly and adorably attractive it was.

"You have dimples when you smile." She stated matter-of-factly.

"_What_?!" Minho squinted at her and crossed his arms; all trace of his smile gone. "I don't have dimples! Dimples are for chics."

Brenda rolled her eyes and laughed. "So I guess you're a chic then, huh?"

Minho fake-glared at her as she continued laughing, and then he snatched the arm band-covered-in-dried-blood out of her hands.

"Hey! Give it back!" She demanded, standing up as he stood up and passed the rolled up arm band from one hand to the other to taunt her.

He wiggled his eyebrows. "You'll have to catch me first, knife-lover." He took off and started running as fast as he could around the resting area, with Brenda right on his trail.

"What kind of nickname is that? Give it back, dimple-chic!" Brenda yelled, running as fast as she could after the spiky-haired teenager.

Minho laughed, and then took a giant leap across the coffee table. His sock barely scraped the top of it, and he landed on the ground, but not without knocking over the deck of cards and sending them flying everywhere. He stopped running and turned around to see the giant mess of cards he had created. Brenda fell on the couch and started cracking up.

"Wooow, nice one, dimple-shuck." Brenda joked, leaning back on the couch and staring all around the card-littered floor.

Minho fell on his knees, trying to pull all of the cards into one pile. "Man, if Newt sees this mess, he's gonna kill me- ..." Suddenly he stopped trying to clean it up.

Brenda leaned forward, curling her eyebrows and feeling worried about her friend.

Minho's shoulders sagged. He glanced around at the pile of mess and then sat down against the couch, letting his head fall into his hands.

"I can't believe... gosh, I just can't believe it."

Brenda scooted to the end of the couch and then sat down on the ground next to Minho.

"Minho... what's wrong?"

The teenager lifted his head out of his head, but he didn't make eye contact with his companion. Instead he just stared at his feet.

"I can't believe Newt is a _Crank_... and one day, one day soon he's going to be a full-_gone_ Crank. It just... it just doesn't seem real."

He shook his head, trying to deny the fact that was ultimately too true and too horrible for him to believe. But it was true. And as horrible as it was, there was nothing they could do to stop it. It was too late for Newt.

"I always think... I know it's _stupid_, but I always think maybe if we had done what Rat Man had wanted us to do, maybe we would've gotten a cure like he had promised, and maybe right now Newt would be okay..." Minho turned to Brenda and gazed into her eyes, as if asking if his thought was a stupid one or not. He needed confirmation if what he and the others had done had been the right thing to do or not. Brenda was caught off guard. His brilliant, sparkling brown eyes were so innocent and naive. Brenda had never seen him like that before. He just needed someone to tell him that everything was going to be okay.

"Listen, Minho... Jorge and I worked at WICKED, not because we needed to, not because we were forced, and not even because we needed money, although that was part of it... we worked there to find out what they were up to. To be a part of the inside. We worked there to find out whether they really were making a cure or not. And from all of the time I spent there, I only found out_ one_ thing that I absolutely knew for certain: Rat Man, A.D. Janson, is a _liar_."

Brenda gave him a firm stare, letting him know that they had done the right thing, leaving WICKED and not listening to Rat Man.

Minho nodded his head and then looked down, letting it all sink in.

"Yeah, you're probably right." He replied.

"I know I am."

Minho looked up at her and she wiggled her eyebrows, making a small grin appear on his face.

"Don't be too hard on yourself, Minho," Brenda told him, grabbing a piece of her arm band that was in his hand and messing with it. "We can only do so much... I know sometimes you might feel like you can save the world, but you can't... sometimes you're just an eleven year old girl who thinks she's tougher then a boulder, but she's not... so, just, do the best you can, and that's great."

Minho glanced at her hand, almost touching his but not quite; messing with the arm band and attempting to unravel it. He glanced up at her eyes that were half-hidden by her bangs.

"Sometimes you think you can save the person you love... but you can't. You're just not strong enough, or old enough, or fast enough. Or you don't have the right resources... but that's okay, Minho, because that's part of life... losing the people we care about. Because then we get to meet new ones..."

Minho softly tucked her bangs behind her ear, allowing him to see her beautiful black eyes, darker then olives, with flecks of brown here and there.

"And I mean, I miss them a lot- my dad and my brothers..." Tears were starting to stream down her cheeks. Her words were jumbling out now, and she tried to stop them, but they were spilling out fast like a waterfall. "And I know you'll miss Newt, but we just have to learn how to live without them, and I know I have Jorge, and he's the best friend I've ever had but I still miss my family like crazy-"

A warm hand on her cheek, her head turned sideways, and the space between her and Minho was gone.

Brenda opened her eyes wide to grasp the situation. Everything was too close for her vision, so she had to close her eyes, but not without realizing what was going on.

Her and Minho were kissing. Wait- wha? YES! Brenda clenched her eyes tightly in excitement and tried not to have some spastic spazz attack as she realized Minho was kissing her.

She kissed him back, deepening the kiss and wishing this moment would never end. Her hand left the arm band and she wrapped her arms around his neck, not caring that she was getting blood from her palm and smothering it on his T shirt and neck.

Suddenly, everything was clear. Brenda could see the future perfectly. _Sure_, they lived in a world filled with Cranks, and at that moment they were stuck in a desert and probably surrounded by Cranks, and _okay_ she really did like Thomas, a lot more then she cared to reveal- but he obviously didn't feel the same way. But it didn't matter, because at that moment, everything made perfect sense to Brenda.

Minho leaned back to stare into her eyes, but it was Brenda who was staring into _his_ eyes; smiling like a dork and feeling happier then she had in a long time.

Right then and there, everything made sense.

* * *

A/N: BOOM!

Yeah, okay, so, yeah. Thar ya go. Hope you're happy. If you're not happy with this chapter's outcome, DOTH NOT FEAR! (or something like that.) Because it's not the end of the story YET and things will probably change.

Heh heh heh hee hee hee hardy har har.

Yes.

I still love you. :D

_-Lurky_


	5. Chapter 5 Jorge's Diary

A/N: GAHHHH THANKYOU GUYS FOR TEH REVIEWS! ^^ GAWSH. Seriously, tho. Every time I see a new review I freak out and get excited and I'm like "crap they're gonna hate it I KNEW I should't have made Minho and Brenda MAKEOUT" but then I see yall's reviews and I just wanna CRY because they make me feel so happy and YUP. :D So, yeah. Thank you, I love you, crap like that... I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS CHAPTER!

Heads up, this chapter might be kind of weird. Just to let you know. Because the next chapter, the plot actually starts to THICKEN. So this is basically just a filler chapter. :P Humor, Newtness, Brenda & Minho fluff, Thomas awesomesauce, and Jorge epicness. But I promise next chapter some interesting stuff will actually happen. I PROMISE.

**SUPER IMPORTANT PLEASE READ LIKE SRSLY:**

**1. I went back and edited the chapters, I didn't change anything major, just some stuff. So if you wanna go back and read them, you can :D but you don't have to.**

**2. I'm rereading the Scorch Trials and I read that BRENDA'S EYES ARE DARK. I never knew (or, I forgot) what color her eyes were, so I just made them hazel in this story. BUT. Now I know they are dark (brown) and so that's one of the reasons I went back and edited teh chaptehs. Yup.**

**3. If you remember anything about what I put about Brenda's family in Ch 3, you will know that I didn't mention her mom, and that's because I was planning on mentioning her in a later chapter or whatevs. BUT then I read a part in TST where Thomas asks Brenda about her mom and she says "She hadn't been around for a long time." So I'm assuming her mom left them (at least, that's what it sounds like). So I added that to Ch3, along with some other stuff. **

**SO if you wanna reread those chapters, you can (I mostly just edited chapter 3 and 4). Yup. :)**

**I don't own The Maze Runner by James Dashner! All this crap is made up by me! WOOP WOOP!**

Chapter 5 - Jorge's Diary

Thomas sighed.

It was precisely 10:32 in the morning, and he. Was. _Bored_.

Pranking Minho? Check. Playing Spoons, multiple times? Also check. Exploring the Berg? Been there, done that, and more then once (it doesn't get any more exciting).

At least he wasn't being chased by Grievers or Cranks, or starving to death, or being shot in the shoulder.

He dropped his head against his pillow and sighed once more, trying to come up with an idea of what to do for entertainment.

"So... anyone got an idea?"

Newt and Minho (the three of them were in the room that they shared, laying on their beds) were also trying to come up with something fun that they could do.

Minho sat up on his bed (a mattress on the floor in the corner of the room) and shook his head. "Guys, we're shucked. There's absolutely nothing to do on this piece of clunk," he complained. "I'm seriously starting to consider throwing myself overboard and hanging out with the Cranks."

"Seems like a bloody good idea to me." Newt replied sarcastically, glancing at Minho.

Minho scratched behind his head, regretting what he had said.

"Don't be a slinthead, Minho," Thomas said, also sitting up. "Before we consider something as stupid as that, let's try to think harder."

"Don't think _too_ hard, Thomas. You might hurt yourself." Minho joked.

Newt snickered, and Thomas glared.

Suddenly the door to their room slid open and Brenda came in carrying a rather large, dusty, and heavy-looking book the color of whatever inhabited Minho's bellybutton.

"What the shuck? Where did you dig up that old _fossil_?" Minho asked, bewildered at the large amount of dust covering the book, as Brenda sat down on a couch. Minho sat down next to her with his legs crossed.

"I found it in a cupboard in a bathroom on the top floor." Brenda replied, smiling at Minho and then turning her attention back to the book.

Newt came over and sat on the arm of the couch, right next to Brenda. "I can't even see the bloody cover! And why the heck would Jorge hide a book in the _bathroom_? What's he got to hide in it?"

Brenda shrugged. "No idea, I've never seen this before. Hand me that towel and I'll wipe the dust off." She nodded to a towel on the ground, and after Newt had grabbed it for her ("Your bloody _welcome_" "Thaaaaankyou Neeeeewt :3"), she wiped a large portion of dust off the cover.

"DUDE NO WAY!" Minho exclaimed, grinning ecstatically.

"Oh. My. GOSH!" Brenda stared at the book, completely flabbergasted.

"He bloody _has_ one?" Newt started cracking up.

Thomas jumped up from his bed and ran over to the back of the couch.

"Has one what? What is it? Lemme see, you shanks!" He jumped up and down, unable to get a clear image of the book because of three giant and laughing-their-heads-off heads in the way.

Brenda held the book up in the air.

On the cover, in a large and elegant font, was written,

_Jorge's Diary._

Thomas' face fell.

"Jorge has... A DIARY?!"

Brenda twisted around, jumped on her knees on the couch, and clamped her hand around Thomas' mouth. He raised his eyebrow.

"Guys, shut up! Jorge can NOT know we have his... _secret book_. If he finds out _I_ found out about this, then he'll KILL me!"

"He's not even here right now!" Newt exclaimed. "And it's not like he has a buggin' camera in every room so he can spy on us at all times without us knowing! ..."

The room grew silent.

Newt gulped. "...Right?"

Newt's eyes grew slippery. He looked left. He looked right. He looked up. He looked down- HOLY CRAP HIS FLY WAS UNDONE!

"Guys. We need to get out of here." Minho told them, nervously messing with his fingers and glancing behind him every now and then.

Newt zipped up his pants.

"Don't worry, I know the perfect place where he can't find us." Brenda told them, clutching the book tighter and then grabbing Minho's hand. Minho looked down at their hands, and then looked at the guys. The guys looked at him. Thomas tried not to look jealous, Newt tried not to throw up, and Minho tried not to look awkward even though_ AWKWARD_.

"We'll have to make a run for it, so stay close to me." Brenda instructed them. They all nodded their heads at the same time.

"Okay... GO!" Brenda made a mad dash for the door, pulling a stumbling Minho along with her, and with Newt and Thomas hot on their trail. They ran as fast as they could down a few hallways, this way and that way, to the left to the left, down the elevator (while listening to some nice, relaxing elevator music), and then down a long narrow and creepy hallway and into a storage closet.

It was the same storage closet that Brenda had used before; small, cramped, and full of food packages (and it had a makeshift bed that was now used as a seat).

"Hey Tommy do you mind getting your elbow OUT OF MY BLOODY RIB CAGE?" Newt complained.

Tommy tried scooting over but when he did, he was squished up against Brenda, and the glare she gave him was so bitter he thought he might pee his pants. So he scooted away; his elbow back into Newt's rib cage.

"Um, yeah, don't think that's gonna happen any time soon. Sorry Newt."

Minho, meanwhile, was sitting nice and comfortably on Brenda's makeshift bed, eating a bag of chips that had fallen from the tower of food packages behind him.

"Will you shuckheads calm down? Just get comfortable and let's read Jorge's diary already." He was about to throw another chip in his mouth when something shiny caught his eye. Minho looked down at the seat beside him and saw Brenda's locket, gleaming at him as if it were mocking him. He looked up at Brenda, who was busy trying to make space with Newt and Thomas. Minho gazed at the locket and sighed inwardly, knowing if Brenda saw her locket again then it would just bring up bad memories. Isn't that why she left it down here in the first place?

He grabbed the necklace and slipped it in his pocket.

"Okay, I think we're good." Thomas announced, sitting on the ground in the corner, opposite of Newt (who was also sitting on the ground). Brenda went to sit next to Minho. "Mind if I sit next to you?" she asked, smiling and trying not to blush, thinking of the kiss they had shared the day before. Minho waved his hand in the air and replied, "Pshh, course not." She giggled and then opened the book to page one.

Newt made a gagging noise.

Brenda kicked him.

"OUCH! Bloody _gosh_, woman, you're wearing _combat_ boots!" Newt exclaimed, glaring at Minho and Brenda.

"Exactly, now shhh."

Newt squinted at her.

Brenda flipped the page, wiped some dust off, and then began to read.

"Ahem. _Tuesday. Feb 2nd. Just celebrated my 15th birthday yesterday," _

"Wait, why isn't it in Spanish?" Newt asked.

Brenda shrugged. "I don't know, maybe he doesn't know how to write in Spanish?"

"What?!" Newt stared at her look she was crazy.

"ANYWAY... _and mamá got me this stupid journal to write in. It's ridiculous. Why do I have to write in here? Because she's forcing me to. And of course, Rodrigo doesn't have to write in a stupid journal. What does he get for his birthday? A-" _

"Wait a minute, hooold on, who the bloody heck is Rodrigo?" Newt asked.

Brenda groaned. "Oh my gosh, how should I know?" She complained, giving Newt an annoyed look.

"Well you know Jorge the best! Who do you_ think_ he is?"

Brenda looked down. After a few seconds she said, "I think maybe Rodrigo is Jorge's older brother."

Thomas suddenly had a memory of a picture- the picture he saw in Jorge's room, of three people smiling at the camera and looking very happy. He knew for sure that the person in the middle was Jorge, but now he was starting to think that the other guy in the picture was probably his brother, Rodrigo.

"_What does he get for his birthday? A really cool red armband. I wish the armband was mine. But no, mamá gets me a journal instead. What the heck am I supposed to write about in here? My feelings? Heck no. I'm defiantly not gonna write in here. I'll just pretend to lose it or something. Yeahhh... that's a good idea._

"That's the end of the first entry." Brenda told them, turning the page.

"Wow. I had no idea Jorge was so stupid at age fifteen." Minho joked, snickering to himself.

Brenda elbowed him. "Oh, shut up. No more stupid then _you_ when you were fifteen."

"Ooh, buuurn!" Newt said, and Brenda laughed. Minho rubbed his arm and squinted at Newt.

"So I've been meaning to ask... when did _you two_ become a couple? Brenda, you must really like the ugly type to have been attracted to Tommy and now Minho. Seriously, I'm kind of concerned for your well-being. Are you sure you're not blind or something?" Newt asked, while Minho and Thomas sat there awkwardly and Brenda rolled her eyes.

"Whatever, Newt. You're just jealous because you're the only one that doesn't have a girlfriend." She smirked at him.

Newt pouted and squinted at her.

"Am _not_! Why the shuck would I want a bloody girlfriend to nag and annoy me all the time?"

Brenda leaned against Minho and crossed her arms, still smirking. "Because we're killer cooks _and_ good kissers." Minho grinned at her and put his arm around her shoulder. "Hey, you can't argue with that." He told Newt, shrugging.

Newt's hands curled into fists and he glared at Minho. "Actually I _can_ argue with that because I've never _kissed_ her." His tone suddenly rose louder, making Thomas nervous that the Crank side of him was kicking in. He decided to join the conversation.

"Okay, okay, having a girlfriend is shuck awesome, we get it _Minho_," Thomas gave him an extra 3-second-long glare (a dude-you-stole-my-girlfriend glare), and then looked back at Newt. "It doesn't matter. Let's just get back to reading Jorge's secret diary that no one is supposed to know about... okay?"

"_No_." Newt stood up, and suddenly the space in the closet seemed a lot smaller. "Actually, I'm not mad at Minho. I'm mad at _you_." His icy cold glare switched to Brenda, and she flinched and sat up; her eyes curling and wondering why Newt was so mad at her.

"Dude, Newt, what is going on?" Minho asked, standing up too and standing in between Newt and Brenda, blocking Newt's view of her.

"Come _on_, Minho. You really think Brenda likes you? She's _playing_ you; just trying to make Thomas jealous so he'll come back to her!" Newt exclaimed, glaring at Minho and shaking his head.

"What?!" Brenda stood up, still holding Jorge's diary in her arms, and gently pushed Minho out of the way so she could see Newt. It was officially too crowded in there again. "How could you _say_ that? I would never use Minho, or _anyone_, to do something as selfish as that!" She stared at her opponent, perplexed, trying to figure out why Newt was so against her.

Newt laughed bitterly and then smirked. He glanced at Thomas and Minho, both of whom, it seemed, were thinking carefully about what Newt had just said.

"Oh, _please_. Are you two really going to believe her?" She turned to Thomas. "She falls in love with you and the second you're not there to cuddle with her, she finds someone new," Newt jerks his head towards Minho. "To use as a makeout buddy. It's _pathetic_."

Brenda was glaring at him now, her eyes were just _screaming_ outrage. "Newt, I can't _believe_ you! That's a _lie_."

"Oh _sure_ it is, and I'm a purple gorilla- not a Crank."

"Just stop it! You're being ridiculous."

"You're the ridiculous one- using my friends as your own little play toys-"

"Just shut up! _Shut up_!"

Suddenly the door to the storage closet swung open, pushing Newt forward into Brenda who fell backwards into Minho and Thomas, who fell back into the huge pile of food, which exploded on their impact and came tumbling down; covering the four teens in food packages.

Jorge stood at the door, scratching behind his head guiltily.

"Whoops. Guess I found you guys, but, uh, didn't mean to find you guys like _this_." He laughed awkwardly.

Brenda popped out of the huge mountain of food packages, already angry, and now even more angry that her secret spot was pretty much completely destroyed. She walked past Jorge, fuming, and shoved his diary into his hands.

"Brenda, what's wrong? Where are you going? What the heck is this book? And what were you guys doing in _here_?" Jorge asked, utterly confused at the whole situation, but Brenda was already gone. He looked back inside the closet, where the guys were standing up and rubbing their heads. Minho took one look at Jorge, realized what book was in his hands, and then took off.

"See you shuckheads later. Brenda, wait up!"

Jorge, still confused, finally took a look at the cover of the large book that was in his hands.

"Jorge's Diary? Hmm, that's a weird name for a book, I don't think I've ever read this novel befo-"

The Hispanic man stopped talking and his face went stone hard.

Thomas and Newt shared a look. They opened their mouths at the same time and what they said next sounded something like,

"Minho blah blah it was Minho la la la Minho did it Minho's fault blah blah Minho Minho Minho-"

Jorge held up his hand, motioning for them to stop talking, which they did. Thomas gulped, knowing there was no way for them to escape this one. But, of course, _Minho_ had escaped it already, punishment-free.

That jerk.

**oOoOo:**

She needed to find a new place.

But where? Brenda knew every stinking inch of Jorge's stinking Berg, and at the moment, she couldn't think of any place that she would've preferred.

Her bedroom? HA, _no_. That place was just a square with a bed and a closet and a pillow and carpet and- no. It reminded her too much of _her_ bedroom- the one back when she had a family.

Jorge's bedroom? It actually wasn't a bad idea- he _never_ went in there unless it was night time and he needed to sleep. But no... that was Jorge's place; Jorge's memories, past, and pain. Brenda needed a place of her own.

She walked down the hallway with increased speed, trying not to think of the scenario that had just happened. Did anything Newt had told her matter? No. Find a place, find a place, find a place. Ignore the words coming from Newt's mouth that for some reason had been implanted in Brenda's brain...

_Playing you... makeout buddy...play toys_...

Brenda's face scrunched up in anger, and she stopped walking in the middle of the hall.

Why would Newt say such horrible things? _How_ could he think Brenda was _that_ kind of person?

"Hey, Brenda!"

The girl turned around and the expression on her face softened as she saw Minho jog towards her and stop in front of her, frowning with concern.

Brenda gave him a sheepish smile.

"Listen, Brenda, what Newt was saying down there, he probably didn't even know _what_ he was saying, ok? I mean, it was probably just him turning more into a Crank... or something..." Minho struggled for a better explanation, trying to make her feel better. "I mean, he's probably just more Gone so that he's starting to say these crazy-shuck things...ya know?"

Brenda stared at him sadly, knowing he was probably right. And that's what made the whole thing even _worse_.

Minho sighed and looked down at his shoes.

"Ah, shuck... What I'm trying to say is... I don't believe anything he said, ok?" He look up and into her eyes, her amazing olive-black eyes that he loved. "I believe _you_."

He smiled at her, which made her smile and laugh a little bit, and then pulled her into a bear hug, which she gladly accepted.

"Minho," Brenda pulled her head back so she could see him; still wrapped in his arms. Her face looked serious. "I promise that everything Newt said is not true. I'm not _playing_ you. And I promise that I really do care about you."

Minho leaned forward so that their noses were touching. He closed his eyelids halfway and, because he was much taller then her, looked down at her and grinned.

"I know. I figured that much when you used your armband to soak up my blood. And when you kissed me back yesterday, and, ya know, kept kissing, and kissing and kissing and-"

"Yeah, yeah, that was all _you._" Brenda laughed, smirking in his face. She looked up at him and then closed her eyelids halfway too, tightening her arms around his neck.

"Suuuure it was. So I guess right now you're not _begging_ me to kiss you?"

"Oh pshhh. That's still you."

"Hmm... yeah, you're right."

Brenda barely managed a laugh before Minho closed the space between them.

As much as she believed herself, as much as Brenda really did know that she was indeed faithful to Minho and him only, thoughts began rising to her head later on when her and Minho went searching for a new place for Brenda.

Thoughts such as... _Am I completely over Thomas? Is he completely over me? Am I ready to move forward?_

But when she glanced at the hand clasped within hers, and when she looked up at whose hand it was, the spiky-haired 17 year old that was chatting at 100,000 miles an hour; all signs of doubt immediately disappeared from her head and was replaced by a calming reassurance.

_Yes._

* * *

A/N: Finally finished this chapter woop woop! Dude, FF dot net totally crashed on me RIGHT when I was typing the ending to this. It really sucked. BUT, it's all good now.

I hope you liked this chapter. :D I'll start on the next one soon.

_-Lurky_


	6. Chapter 6 World Of Cranks

A/N: Thank you Kittyphoenix and Won'tforgetcanregret for teh reviews. ^.^

Chapter 6 - World Of Cranks

It was time for a Gathering.

Thomas had talked with Jorge, and the reason behind the Berg's random malfunctioning had been found.

Newt, the one to usually be in charge of the Gathering business, had lately been in a very bad temper. Thomas decided not to ask him to be in charge.

Minho, who at one point been the leader, had lately been off with Brenda, doing who _knows_ what kind of romantic shenanigans. Thomas didn't even want to go near them, fearing he would catch them making out or snuggling or... ugh, he shuddered just thinking about it.

So it was up to him to call the Gathering.

He used the automatic call system that was in the cockpit to reach the other members of the Berg, who were in other rooms of the ship sulking or making out, to tell them about the Gathering that was taking place in five minutes. Be there and don't be late.

**oOoOo:**

Nobody was late.

"I see we're still having shuck Gatherings, huh?" Minho said, jumping on the couch and getting comfortable next to Brenda. "So what's this all about?"

Thomas sat down across from that couch on another couch, next to Newt. Jorge remained standing.

"Jorge found out how to fix the Berg." Thomas announced, looking anywhere but where Minho and Brenda were sitting.

Everyone's heads perked up. Brenda cracked a smile.

"So we're finally getting out of here?" She asked hopefully.

Jorge raised a hand, as if to slow down the hopefulness. "Not so fast, muchacha. I found out what went wrong, and I _can_ fix it, but I need something first. Something that we don't exactly have on this Berg."

The mood instantly deflated. Minho slapped his thigh and groaned.

"I knew it. Just shuckin' _great_. Right when we think we're about to leave, we're stuck again."

"Keep listening, Minho. It gets better." Thomas added, his voice edged with sarcasm.

Jorge placed a hand on Thomas and Newt's couch and sighed. Then he looked up at everyone and continued speaking. "The part that I need is actually pretty small, but it's very crucial. I know where to find it, too. A few miles from here there used to be a place that sold Berg parts and equipment, and even though everywhere around here is a ghost town now, I bet that place still has the part that I need."

He looked around at everyone to make sure they were understanding what he was about to suggest.

"I need someone to come with me to that place- a three day trek- to get that part, and then come back. Through the Crank infested ghost town."

Silence. Dead silence. They all knew what the deal was, what he was suggesting. He needed himself and someone else to go out into Crankworld for three days to try and find a part, that might not even _be_ there, and then come back, all without being eaten alive by Cranks. Or scorched to death by the heat.

"So... any takers?" Jorge asked.

"I'll bloody do it." Newt spoke up, for the first time during the Gathering.

Everyone looked up at Newt. Thomas and Minho stared at him; a mix between disbelief and concern. Minho stood up abruptly.

"Absolutely not."

"Slim it, Minho. I'm going." Newt replied, barely even looking up.

"Actually, hermano, I have to agree with Minho on this one," Jorge said. "It wouldn't be good for you to go out there among the Cranks, you know, because of you being... because of your... condition." He coughed awkwardly.

Newt stood up and threw his hands in the air angrily. "Because I'm a buggin' _Crank_; it's not that hard to say!"

"Either way, you're not going." Thomas said, giving Newt a serious stare. Then he turned to Jorge. "I'll go."

"Here we go- Thomas being the bloody hero again." Newt sat down on the couch again and glared at the floor.

"Well _someone_ has to go! I'm not _trying_ to be a hero!" Thomas replied angrily. "And I'm a Runner- I'll be more useful out there."

"Yeah, but I'm a faster Runner then you are, Thomas," Minho said, pointing out the facts. "So it would be better if I were the one to go out there with Jorge. That way if we needed to make a quick getaway from some shuck Cranks..." He let the sentence die out.

Jorge clapped his hands, getting everyone's attention. "So it's settled, then? Minho and I?"

Brenda spoke up, and when she did, her voice started out very frail. "Well... what if, I mean, how about I go with you, Jorge?" She cleared her throat and then continued speaking, staring directly at Jorge. "I know how to fight, so if we do run into any Cranks it won't even be a problem. And I run fast. I'm probably your best bet."

Jorge walked over to where she was sitting and placed a hand on her shoulder, staring into her eyes.

"Brenda, I need you to stay here and hold down the fort. You're the only one besides me that knows how to work the Berg, so if anything goes wrong, you'll be able to fly it somewhere safe."

Brenda stared into his eyes, and an agreement of sorts passed between them. She nodded her head and then looked down.

"Okay. Got it."

Jorge stood up and then crossed his arms. Then he looked at Minho.

"Right. Minho, pack a bag. Food and water. We leave in ten minutes."

He left the room.

**oOoOo:**

Minho zipped up his bag and then swung it across his shoulder. It wasn't heavy, at least not for him. It would be easy enough to run with. All it contained were a couple of bottled waters and many packages of food. Hopefully enough to last for three days. If he survived.

The door to their shared bedroom slid open, and in came Thomas. Minho turned around and stared at him. Thomas stared back.

"Good luck out there."

"Eh, I don't need it."

Minho took his wristwatch off and rubbed his wrist. He began re-strapping it back on.

"Make sure Newt stays sane while I'm gone, kay?" Minho asked, and Thomas nodded his head.

"I'll try. I mean- yeah. I will."

It was quiet. Thomas walked over to his mattress-on-the-floor and sat down. He sighed.

"Hey, um, about Brenda..."

Minho exploded on him. "Dude- I had _no_ idea her and I, us, _we_- would happened, I just- I didn't even_ know_, and I know you probably hate my guts, and your life probably _sucks_ right now even more then it usually does, and dude that _sucks_, but- _shuck_- what I'm _trying_ to say is, I'm sor-

"MINHO!"

Minho stopped talking.

Thomas shook his head, smiling. "It's okay."

The older boy raised his eyebrow. "Wait... wha?"

"Yup. It's_ okay_."

"So... you don't like her anymore?"

Thomas looked away, a sinking feeling in his stomach. "Well, I never said that... I'm just saying, it's okay that you guys are together. I'm okay with it. I'm happy that you're happy, and that she's happy. You're my best friend, so I'm cool with it."

Minho cracked a wide grin. He opened his mouth to say something, but Thomas interrupted.

"Can we just finish this conversation and talk about something else now?"

Minho chuckled, and then nodded.

"Good that."

**oOoOo:**

They all convened in the foyer of the ship, which was where the "front door", or hatch, was. Jorge and Minho each had a backpack behind their backs, and Brenda, Newt, and Thomas were standing with them. They were saying their goodbyes.

Jorge gave Brenda a sad smile, and then they hugged.

"Hey... where's the red arm band that I gave you?" He asked, noticing that she wasn't wearing it anymore.

Brenda rubbed the spot on her arm where it usually was. "I used it to... anyway, it's dirty and I'm washing it." She didn't know if Jorge knew about her and Minho yet, but for some reason she didn't want him to know.

He gave her a quizzical look, but then shook it off. "Well, alright. I'm glad you're going to stay here to keep things safe. Don't miss me because I'll see you soon, okay?"

Brenda nodded her head; trying not to let negative thoughts or emotions wash over her. Jorge will be back soon. Three days. No time at all.

"Ok. As long as you don't miss me."

Jorge smiled.

As he walked away, Brenda looked over and saw Minho saying goodbye to Newt. When he finished, he looked directly at her.

Her insides burned.

Minho walked towards her, not smiling but looking very melancholy, and pulled her into a hug. Brenda hugged back tightly, clenching her eyes. If Jorge wasn't suspicious about them before, he defiantly knew they had a relationship going on _now_.

Minho pulled his head bag to look into her eyes. Brenda looked up at him, trying to keep her breathing steady.

"I'll see you soon..." Minho said quietly.

That's what Jorge had told her. And neither times had been reassuring.

Brenda nodded her head, urging him to keep talking.

"I've dealt with Cranks before. This should be a piece of cake. So, don't worry 'bout me, kay? Just stay here and keep things busy. Make sure Newt doesn't beat anyone else up or anything. And just keep making Ramen noodles so that when I get back I'll have a fresh bowl to eat..."

His voice cracked, and Brenda roughly pulled him into another hug so that he wouldn't see the tears streaming down her cheeks.

It wasn't fair. It_ just_ wasn't fair. It seemed like Brenda had just gotten Minho- like they had just found eachother in a world of Cranks- and now they were being ripped apart. And there was a huge chance that Minho might never come back.

This could be the last time she ever saw him.

Minho held her tightly; his left arm around her back and his right hand on her head, stroking her hair softly; trying to stroke the tears away. He rested his head against hers with his eyes closed, not knowing what to do. What _could_ he do? He didn't want to leave Brenda, but he knew that he had to. He was their best shot out there.

Finally Brenda pulled back, crystal blue tears stained on her face. Minho placed his hands gently on her cheeks and wiped the tears away with his thumbs.

"Just... kill a shuckin' Crank for me, would'ya?"

Minho cracked a smiled, finding it adorable at her use of the word "shuck".

"Sure thing."

He leaned down and placed a kiss on her head. And then he was gone.

Brenda looked away as Minho walked over to stand next to Jorge, who had been awkwardly trying not to listen to the whole thing (as did Thomas and Newt). Jorge cleared his throat and then slapped Minho on the back (harder then he had first intended... a_ lot_ harder) and then said, "Alright, hermano, all ready?"

Minho nodded, not looking at him or at anything in particular. "Yeah."

"Good." Jorge looked up at the three teens standing a few feet away. "You guys might wanna shield your eyes."

Thomas and Newt looked at eachother in confusion, and then looked back at Jorge as he pressed a button on the wall. After a second, the hatch began to open, and scorching hot rays of sunlight began shooting inside the Berg.

Once the hatch was completely open, large enough for any man to step through, Jorge turned back to the three teens with a serious expression on his face.

"We'll see you guys in three days. When we come back, you can know it's us by turning on the Berg and using the cameras to view what is outside. You'll know it's us by _this_ special knock-" he took his fist and knocked on the wall four times super fast, and then two times regular speed. "Do not, and I repeat- do _not_ open the hatch for any other reason whatsoever. Comprender?"

Thomas, Newt, and Brenda nodded their heads.

"Good luck out there, guys." Thomas said, squinting his eyes to look at them through the light, but also having a serious expression on his face.

"Thanks, amigo. See you guys later." Jorge nodded at them, and he and Minho began walking outside.

"See you shuck heads later," Minho said, waving at Thomas and Newt. He looked back at Brenda, who was staring at him with a heartbroken face.

Minho's heart dropped, and then the hatch closed.

* * *

A/N: The plot finally TAKES OFF. I'm so glad you guys are liking the story. I really wish there were more reviewers, but alas, TMR isn't a very large fandom.

YET.

Holy crap guys I CAN'T WAIT for the flippen MOVIE! DUDE! It's gonna freaking RAWK!

:D

I'm so excited.

_-Lurky_


	7. Chapter 7 Bread and Butter

A/N: Thank you Nukarumi-Chan and KAYLA for the reviews! :) Ok so I know it's been a while and that's mostly because I was at camp for a week and I obviously couldn't update this story at camp, but school is starting soon AND I just found out I'm moving to Utah SO please don't be surprised if I don't update as regularly as you would like me to. Between packing, school work, and other junky junk stuff that happens on the road of life, I probably won't work on this story as much as I want to. But I PROMISE I won't give up on it. D:

So yarr.

I don't own The Maze Runner!

Chapter 7 - Bread and Butter

Trudging through the sand. Sweating with the heat. Trying to survive through the scorching sun. Knowing that at any moment, Cranks could come running towards them and attack. They had the upper hand. This was their world.

Jorge and Minho, the most unlikely of teams, pushed on through the desert. Jorge wiped the sweat off his forehead and then handed his companion his own personal water pouch. Minho accepted it without saying a word and gulped it down greedily. After a few seconds Jorge stopped walking and snatched back his water pouch. "Woah there, muchacho. You already drank all the water in your own pouch; we need to save whats left of the water that we have."

Minho stomped at the ground in anger. "What were we thinking? The first day of our journey isn't even over yet and we're already almost out of water." He crossed his arms and turned away, glaring at the ground. "We're gonna die in this shuck desert."

Jorge wiped the sweat off his forehead again and then attached the water pouch on his belt. "Don't give up now, hermano. We'll find a spring or a water hole somewhere out here. How else do you think the Cranks survive?"

Minho glared at him. "Gee, _that's_ reassuring."

The older man rolled his eyes. "Come on; let's keep moving."

Minho groaned and then continued walking through the blazing desert sun alongside his equally sweaty companion. They stumbled along for a long time before Minho stuffed his hands in his shorts, and when he did he was surprised to feel something cold and metallic in his left pocket. He frowned, taking the object out of his pocket to see that it was a heart shaped locket. It took him a few seconds to remember that he had put it in his pocket the day before to prevent Brenda from seeing it and reliving the bad memories she had explained to him about.

Jorge noticed the locket dangling from Minho's hand and raised his eyebrow. "Where did you get that? I've seen that before... that's Brenda's grandmother's locket."

The Runner curled his eyebrows. "It's her grandmother's_ l_ocket? I didn't know that."

"Well technically it's her mom's locket, because her grandmother gave it to her mom, but Brenda doesn't want anything to do with her mom so she calls it her grandmother's locket." Jorge explained, taking the front of his shirt and shaking it to create a small breeze.

Minho stared at the necklace. "Well that makes sense. Brenda told me her mom left their family when she was really little. That's all she said, tho, so I don't know the whole story."

"She was a baby when her mom left," Jorge explained, still shaking his shirt. "Even she doesn't know the whole story. Her father didn't like to talk about it." He gave the young boy a quizzical look. "Why do you even _have_ that?"

"I didn't steal it or anything! I just didn't want Brenda to see it because the last time she saw it she got so sad and depressed, so I put it in my pocket. I was gonna put it back later but I guess I forgot about it." Minho slipped it back inside his pocket and shrugged. "Guess it's too late now."

"Yeah, yeah, let's just keep moving." Jorge replied, finally putting his hand down from shaking his T shirt. He was planning on asking Minho about his relationship with Brenda, but he wasn't exactly sure how to do it without making things completely awkward the entire rest of their journey. He decided he'd wait until they had reached their destination and then he would bring it up.

They walked in silence for a few more minutes until Minho said, "Well it sounds like her mom was a horrible shank in general. I hope at least her _dad_ was a good dad."

"Brenda loved her dad. He was an amazing person," Jorge told him, remembering everything Brenda had told him about her family so many years before. "Her dad raised four kids all on his own, in a crazy world with no one else to help him, and he loved all of them unconditionally. It..." He sighed and shook his head. "It tortured her to pieces when he was killed."

Minho looked up, a look of surprise on his face. "What? He was _killed_? Brenda told me he was taken by WICKED!" A really bad feeling started bubbling in his stomach. Had Brenda lied to him?

"He _was_ taken by WICKED. Him and Brenda's older brothers. It's kind of a long story..."

Minho relaxed, realizing that she _hadn't_ lied to him. "Well we kind of have all the shuck time in the world."

Jorge nodded. "That's true. Ok, well... when we first started working for WICKED, I was 23. She was 15. Brenda found out that her father was still alive- WICKED had kept him alive and forced him to work for them because he had a special set of skills that they needed. They wouldn't allow her to see him though, but he still went against that to warn her not to trust anybody at WICKED- _especially_ A. D. Janson."

A shiver surged throughout Minho's body, and he couldn't help but cast a weary eye around the desert, just in case Rat Man was somewhere nearby.

Jorge continued the story. "One night her dad tried to help her escape, but it was no use. They were caught immediately and he was shot in the head. Right in front of her."

Minho stopped walking. He squinted at the ground, replaying the scene in his mind. The beautiful face of Brenda, not beautiful but twisted up in anger and confusion and just completely heartbroken, was plastered in front of his eyes. His hand immediately went for the necklace inside his pocket. "No wonder she hates this thing..."

Jorge laughed bitterly. "If there's anything she hates the most in this world, it's WICKED. They took her family away from her. They killed her father right in front of her eyes. And even then, they forced her to continue working for them, because once you start working for WICKED, you can't quit. You have no choice."

Minho shook his head, trying not to believe it. He thought about all the horrible things that had happened to him, and now all the horrible things that happened to Brenda. "I guess that's what its like in the real world. Its the same thing with the shuckin' Maze. Every day is just a test to see if you can survive."

Jorge remained quiet, probably caught up in his own horrible memories. The sun was starting to go down, and when he realized this, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and continued walking.

"Come on, hermano. The sun is gonna set soon, and when it does, we better hope we have a building to hide in."

Minho followed him, walking on his right side, and squinted at him when he used the word "hide". "_Why_?"

Jorge grimaced. "Because night time is when the Cranks come out."

**oOoOo:**

The air was quiet.

Newt had retreated to locking himself inside his bedroom and only coming out during mealtimes (and to use the restroom). He openly claimed that this was because he didn't want to risk hurting anyone just in case he turned super-Crank within a matter of seconds (even though Brenda had assured him that was impossible).

Thomas was avoiding Brenda like she _was_ a full gone Crank, which she thought was just rude. Every time they passed each other in the hallway, or were forced to see each other when eating a meal, he would give her an awkward grin while avoiding her eyes and then rush away, or start up a random conversation with Newt.

_Is it because I'm in a relationship with Minho?_ she thought, trying not to feel hurt every time he avoided her. _Well duh, of course it is! Minho is his best friend, and we used to be together... well, I think. Why does he care- I thought he was in love with freaking Teresa?_

Brenda was at an endless war with herself on figuring out why Thomas no longer acknowledged her presence. It was bad enough that the two people she cared about the most were out in the desert and could be ambushed by Cranks anytime with no warning, but now she was here with one person that had pretty much given up on life, and another person that acted as if he didn't even care about her. Even though at one point he did.

The two people she knew she couldn't live without were gone. Jorge; strong, tough as nails, always there for her, always knowing what to do. But he also had a soft side. A part of him he kept bottled up that when sometimes he let it out, only Brenda could fix it and help him feel better. And Minho; fast, slippery, sarcastic, but funny and a goofball all the same. And more importantly, he was new to her, but he was _close_ to her. He trusted her. He knew she wouldn't let him down, and he would never ever let her down. They were the people she could tell everything to. They were the people she could trust.

On the second day, during lunch, Brenda wasn't surprised to see Thomas and Newt stumble inside the galley at exactly 12:00, the time everyday that she always had food prepared and ready to be served. But this time it was different. Brenda stood against the counter with her arms crossed and eyed the boys as they pulled two chairs out and sat at the table, eager to eat.

Brenda raised her eyebrow.

Newt and Thomas raised their heads to look at the counter.

"What the bloody heck?" Newt exclaimed, squinting as if he couldn't believe it. "Where's the food?"

Brenda walked over to them and rested her arms on one of the chairs. She stared at Newt.

"Oh, there's food alright."

"Well I don't _see_ any shuck food." He retorted, squinting at her.

"It's in bags and packages and cans." She smiled sweetly.

Newt did not return the smile.

"Today is your guys' lucky day," Brenda announced, walking back over to the counter. "Back in the Maze, you guys had one person making all the food, and that's not really fair. Today I'm going to teach you guys how to cook."

Thomas and Newt exchanged a look. They jumped from the table and booked it for the door but not before Brenda called out "Auto Door Lock!" and the door to the kitchen locked itself.

Thomas and Newt turned back to Brenda.

"It's an automatic system. It only works for my voice and Jorge's voice." She said matter-of-factly.

The boys exchanged another look.

"Brenda, why the bloody shuck would we want to learn how to cook?" Newt asked, as they both walked back towards her and stood next to her by the counter.

"Besides, in three days we'll have that Berg part and we'll be flying out of here anyway." Thomas said, speaking to Brenda for the first time that day.

The girl crossed her arms and glared at him. "You mean in _six_ days?"

Thomas curled his eyebrows. "What? But Jorge said-"

"Jorge said it was a three day trek to get to the place they were going to. Then another three days coming back." Brenda told him.

Thomas stared at her, dumbfounded. He hadn't realized that until just then.

"ANYWAY," Newt interrupted, apparently already knowing this information. "I know you're annoyed that you have to cook every bloody meal for us, but I don't mind just eating bread and butter-"

Suddenly a really loud beeping sounded on the intercom, and Brenda stood up straight and curled her eyebrows. Newt and Thomas stared at her, expecting her to explain. The beeping stopped a few seconds later.

"What was that?" Thomas asked, sounding a little bit concerned.

"Um... I'm not sure." Brenda replied, sounding confused. "Let's go check it out."

She started towards the door and the two boys followed her, sharing a look that said "this can't mean anything good".

Once they were in the cockpit, Brenda pressed a few buttons on the control panel and then a video monitor flashed and showed the desert world outside. Brenda gasped.

"Jorge and Minho!"

"They're back?" Thomas asked, staring at the screen in confusion. "All I see is sand!"

"They have to be! That's what that beeping meant! It means someone's at the hatch, but I couldn't believe it because how would they be back that fast-?"

"Come on, let's go!" Newt said, rushing towards the door, and Thomas and Brenda followed.

They ran as fast as they could towards the hatch door. Brenda didn't know whether to smile or to frown.

"Guys, what if they got hurt so they had to cut the journey short?" She yelled over the sounds of their loud, running footsteps.

"Or it could mean they found the piece somewhere nearby and now they're back and we're leaving today!" Thomas yelled, much happier then Brenda was.

Brenda frowned, but then smiled.

"I can't wait to see them!"

"Shut your bloody hole and help me open this thing!" Newt said when the reached the hatch, trying to search for the button that had opened it the day before. Brenda glared at him and then he smiled sheepishly. "Um, I mean... please?"

She rolled her eyes and smiled.

"Right behind you!" She said, trying to contain her excitement.

Newt turned around, smiled at the others- which was very uncharacteristic of him at this point- and then pressed the button.

The three of them waited side by side as the hatch door opened, smiling excitedly at the thought of being able to leave this scorching, Crank-infested desert. Suddenly Brenda's insides tingled and alarms went off everywhere inside her mind.

What if... what if it wasn't Jorge and Minho waiting for them on the other side of that opening hatch door?

...What if it was a Crank?

Brenda's smile dropped and her eyes widened at the thought. It was too late now, though. The door was open and the person on the other side of the Berg was clearly visible. Newt, Thomas, and Brenda were completely frozen with shock.

"Hey, guys." Teresa said, looking very innocent with her hands behind her back. "May I come in?"

* * *

A/N: DUDE. Cliffhangers are hardcore.

So the whole "grandmother's necklace, used to be mom's necklace" thing? Guess where I commandeered _that_ from? YUP- Avataaar! Avatar: The Last Airbender was my CHILDHOOD. Man, it was awesome.

I hope you got the meaning of the chapter title, but just in case you didn't, I'll explain. Jorge and Minho are Brenda's bread and butter. Ta da! Explained. Yeah I know it makes no sense. Go back and read that one paragraph in this chapter and THEN it'll make sense.

Anyway, here it be. I hope ya enjoyed it. Please tell me what you thought!

_-Lurky_


	8. Chapter 8 Blue Eyes

A/N: Hey guys! Sooo it's been a while... he he, yeahhh awkward cough...Ok yeah I'm REALLY sorry it's been so long. I've been busy and stuff. Lame excuse, I know. Blehh.

ANYWAY here's the next chapter FINALLY, and I hope you guys like it. I'm so sad they changed the date for the release of the movie! D: DUDE! I canNOT wait that long! I will probably possibly most likely absolutely EXPLODE before September out of excitement.

Anywho, here it is.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own The Maze Runner! D: WHYYYYY?

Minho: You're just not awesome enough, Lurky. You need to be more awesome. You need to be more... Minhoish.

Lurky: :O

Minho: Tis true.

Lurky: Holy crap. EPIPHANY! I need to be more... Thomasish.

Minho: o.o NO! THAT IS NOT WHAT I SAID.

Thomas: It's what you meant.

Minho: WHY YOU...!

Newt: Aaaand, back to the story!

Chapter 8 - Blue Eyes

The silence in the air was insufferable. Teresa stood there, waiting for a demand to be made. "How did you get here?" "What are you doing here?" or even "Come inside so we can close the hatch!" were all perfectly logical sentences that she was expecting. But instead, all she got were stares of complete and utter surprise. She was becoming impatient. The sun was starting to burn her back.

Brenda made the first move.

"Newt, close the hatch." she ordered, her voice neither strict nor soft. Teresa could tell the brunette was not pleased with her sudden appearance.

Newt did as he was told and pressed a button on the wall that was near him, and the hatch door began to close. Teresa was grateful for this. Hopefully the skin on her back hadn't turned red.

"Teresa... what are you doing here?" Teresa looked up sharply at the person who had said these words; Thomas.

_Thomas._

He looked completely surprised, but was smiling at the same time.

Teresa couldn't help but smile too. A genuine smile. She resisted the urge to talk to him in his mind; everyone else would just get confused.

"I missed you," Teresa replied, staring straight at Thomas. "I had a feeling you guys were in danger so I came to help."

Newt scoffed and rolled his eyes. "In danger from boredom, really. Don't know how you got here and I don't bloody care, but you wasted your time. We're fine."

Teresa frowned, her shoulders slumping. "So I came all this way for nothing?"

"Well, you didn't come here for nothing if you're staying." Thomas told her, smiling softly.

Brenda was about to puke.

Teresa gave him a huge smile. She looked down, took a deep breath and then announced, "Listen guys, I know I've done some pretty horrible things to you in the past... especially you, Thomas... but that was when I was under WICKED's control. I _promise_ they have no control over me anymore, and I really want to help in any way I can."

She was still looking down when Thomas walked up to her. He lifted her chin up and stared into her beautiful blue eyes. Teresa tried not to blush.

"I believe you." Thomas said, his face completely serious. "You did some pretty horrible things to us, but if you're honest and you really want to redeem yourself like you say you do, then I forgive you."

Teresa smiled the biggest of smiles and before she could help herself she jumped into his arms for a hug. He smiled and hugged her back.

MEANWHILE Brenda was trying not to upchuck all over the floor of the Berg. Newt was waaay ahead of her, and when he came back from the bathroom, wiping his mouth, he saw the scene unraveling before his eyes and sighed as he turned to go back to the bathroom.

Brenda stopped him before he could leave.

"Wait! Newt, I need to talk to you."

"Just a sec, Brenda, thanks to these shuck faces here I need to go throw up again-"

"Seriously! This is important!"

She grabbed his arm and ran off.

* * *

They ended up in Jorge's room.

Newt curled his eyes. "Why the bloody heck are we in here?"

Brenda looked around and then shrugged. "Oh... I dunno. I just like it in here for some reason. It comforts me when Jorge is gone, I guess."

"Yeah, yeah, apples and oranges. _Anyway_ what did you want in the first place?" Newt asked impatiently.

Brenda looked around suspiciously, as if Thomas and Teresa had followed them. Then she looked Newt dead in the eye.

"I don't trust Teresa one bit."

"Neither do I."

"_Good._ Then we can both agree that Thomas is being a SHUCKING IDIOT."

Newt opened his mouth quickly to respond but then stopped and raised his eyebrow at her.

"You know it's kinda _weird_ when you use terms from the Glade, because you're _not_ from the Glade."

Brenda glared at him.

"...what I'm trying to say is you shouldn't use the-"

"OH MY GOSH OKAY, JUST SHUT UP ABOUT IT!"

"OKAY, I WILL!"

Newt huffed louder then necessary, crossing his arms and glaring at the girl standing across from him.

Brenda did the exact same thing.

"Did you just mimic me?"

Brenda ignored him.

"There has to be a reason Teresa came back," she said, unfolding her arms and pacing back and forth, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation. "And how did she come back, anyway?"

Newt shrugged. "She never explained how."

"Well that seems a bit fishy."

Just then Newt's stomach grumbled. Newt looked down at his stomach. He looked back up at Brenda.

"I just realized we never had lunch."

Brenda sighed, remembering how she was about to teach the boys how to cook when the arrival of Teresa interrupted.

"Can you make fishsticks?" Newt asked, puppy-dog-eyes out and on full-force.

The brunette shook her head but smiled.

"Yeah, sure."

"Yay!"

Newt limped off to the galley.

Brenda was about to leave the room when something stopped her. She took one last sad glance around Jorge's broken bedroom. Then she looked down, sighed, and left; trying not to think about what could be happening to him at that very moment.

* * *

"Uh, Jorge?"

"Yes, muchacho?"

"I just wanna point out that there are five Cranks running straight for us looking uglier then Gally and angrier then me when I don't have any pancakes."

"Well. This _is_ a predicament, isn't it?"

"Yes. Yes it is."

Even though it was dark outside and Jorge had just woken up, he could barely make out five blurry shapes in the distance, running straight towards him and Minho.

"So... what do you suggest we do?" Jorge asked calmly, looking over at his younger companion, who seemed just as calm as him.

Minho looked over at him.

"RUN FOR YOUR SHUCKIN' LIIIFE!"

Noises of hysterical laughter could be heard from behind them as Jorge and Minho jumped up from their hiding place (under a small shack) and started running as fast as they could. Minho strapped his backpack onto his back as he ran, also looking back while doing so. He poured all of his energy into getting as far away from the Cranks as possible.

"Keep running!" Jorge shouted from by his side, also running as fast as he could.

"Wasn't planning on stopping!" Minho replied.

They only got a few feet farther when the younger boy checked his pocket and realized that Brenda's locket was gone. He stopped running and looked back.

"What are you doing?" Jorge asked, slowing down. "We need to get out of here!"

"I left Brenda's locket behind," Minho replied, cursing himself for being so stupid. "I need to go back for it."

"Minho, just leave it behind. I's only a necklace, and Brenda doesn't even care about it." Jorge tried to reason with him, but to no avail. The Runner started as fast as he could back towards the shack; straight towards the Cranks.

"MINHO!" Jorge yelled after him but got no reply. He shook his head, muttering under his breath, and ran after him.

The Cranks were running straight at Minho, laughing and yelling and grabbing out in front of them; clutching the air.

Minho knew he was probably crazy. Shuck, after everything he went through in the Maze, he _was_ crazy. But he couldn't leave Brenda's necklace behind in the desert world, with a picture of her family inside of it. He didn't know why exactly but he felt as if he needed to protect it, or at least keep it safe until Brenda wanted to see it again.

So that's exactly why he was about to collide with 5 Cranks in the middle of the night who would most likely tear him apart limb from limb.

"GIVE ME YOUR NOOOSE!" One of them yelled when they were within fifteen feet of eachother.

"I WANT YOUR FACE!" Another one shouted. Minho swore this one was skipping.

Suddenly they all started skipping.

"I WANT YOUR NOSE AND YOUR FACE!" A third one cried, tripping on his feet and faceplanintg into the ground.

"Listen you brainless shanks," Minho yelled, seeing an opening in the group of Cranks and jumping over the one that had tripped, running fast behind them and towards the shack. "My nose and my face are too beautiful to be ripped apart by a butt-ugly group of Cranks such as yourselves."

"EXCUSE ME?" The leading Crank said, a girl with a hot pink mohawk.

"WHERE IS MY NEW NOOOSE?"

"CRANKY CRANKY CRANKY CRAAAANK!"

Minho saw the locket laying on the ground next to the shack, and he ran straight for it, completely aware of the now-very-ticked-off Cranks that were right behind him. He grabbed the locket, shoved it in his pocket, and then turned around.

He was completely surrounded.

"CRANKY CRANKY CRANKY CRAAANK!"

"CAN I HAZ MY NEW NOSE NOW?"

"NO, SHUT UP."

"BUT I WAAANT IT!"

"DON'T CARE, SHUT UP."

"CRANKY CRANKY CRANKY CRAAA-"

"_SHUT UP_!" The whole group of Cranks glared at the one who kept repeating those words; a bald guy with a really large mustache.

Minho tried to concentrate, trying to figure out how to get out of this. Just as he was about it make a move, the Crank with the mohawk (who he assumed to be the leader) stepped up. Minho glared at her. She started cackling.

"Are you ready to give up your nose?'" she asked, creeping closer.

Minho had no weapons to use against her. He was completely surrounded and outmatched.

He knew it was over. There was nowhere else to run, and Jorge had apparently decided to leave without him.

Unless...

"Minho! CATCH!"

The Runner looked up just in time as Jorge appeared, tossing a crowbar towards him, and holding one in his own hands as well. They wasted no time.

Mohawk-girl ran towards Minho, snarling as she did which made her look ten times uglier, and Minho defended himself with the crowbar. She was strong but it was an easy fight and she was down in seconds, and he moved on to the next one, fighting alongside Jorge, who was (Minho hated to admit it) kicking butt and making him look weak.

The last Crank, the annoying bald mustache guy, proved to be the strongest. Minho and Jorge ganged up on him but he would not go down.

"CRANKY CRANKY CRANKY CRAAANK! I AM A BLOODY CRANK! THIS IS WHO I AM!" he yelled as loud as possible before seizing the crowbar from Minho's hands and jabbing him in the side of his stomach. Minho screamed out in pain as he fell down on his knees, grabbing his side. He looked up and glared at the Crank, who gave him an evil smile in return.

Mustache-Crank was about to jab him one last time when Jorge came to the rescue and whacked him hard in the head, causing him to fall unconscious on the ground.

"You okay?" Jorge asked, helping Minho stand up. The Runner groaned in pain but nodded his head, still clutching onto his side.

"Yeah, I'm fine. He barely fazed me." Minho replied, making sure he wasn't bleeding. Jorge crossed his arms and raised his eyebrow. "Oh, and uh... thanks, by the way, for saving my butt."

Jorge smirked. "You got it, hermano. Do you still have the necklace?"

Minho patted his pocket, making sure the locket was there.

"Yup."

"Good. Let's get going. We need to find another place to sleep before these Cranks wake up." Jorge replied, kicking one of the Crank's legs.

Minho nodded his head, and they proceeded forward into the darkened desert world.

* * *

Finally, some peace and quiet.

Teresa had slipped out of the galley to use the restroom. Instead of going the way Thomas had directed her, she went the opposite way and found a nice secluded bedroom, free from the prying ears of Brenda and Newt. And Thomas.

Teresa sat on the perfectly-made bed, observing the room. It looked like it hadn't been touched in ages. Everything was clean and organized, and dust was beginning to form on the desk and dresser that sat on the other side of her.

It was the perfect place.

Bringing her arm in from of her, Teresa pressed a few buttons on her large silver wristwatch. It looked like any other watch, but after a few minutes of button-pressing and waiting, suddenly the face of the watch changed. It no longer showed the hands and numbers that it usually showed.

The face it showed now was that of A.D. Janson.

"_Finally!_ I was beginning to worry you wouldn't follow your orders." Rat Man said, his voice oozing with impatience.

Teresa's face twisted up in something that Rat Man knew all too well. Annoyance, anger. _Hatred_.

"Calm down, Janson. It's not like I have a choice." She spat back, staring into the little screen and wishing things would go by fast.

Janson smirked. "Of course you don't. Now, onto business; does he trust you?"

Teresa stared him straight in the eyes. "Yes. He trusts me. But the other two? Not so much."

The man's smirked turned into a disappointed frown. "Hmm, well... discouraging but not surprising. I suppose this will set things back a bit but not by much..."

"I might be able to get Newt on my side, but I highly doubt I'll be able to get Brenda to trust me. She obviously still harbors a crush on Thomas, and with him being so openly welcoming to me, she-"

"Yes, yes, I _know_- but you have a mission and it's your job to complete it." Janson interrupted, becoming annoyed. "Understood?"

Teresa stared at him. Not a smile, not a frown; just a completely serious face. Her cold blue eyes pierced him to the back of his soul.

He almost flinched.

_Almost._

"Understood." Teresa finally replied, giving a slight nod of the head.

"Good. Then get on with it. You know when to speak with me again; and by _all means_, make sure nobody catches you."

"Don't worry. They won't"

* * *

A/N: OOOH SHNAAHP. PLOT TWIST, BABEH.

Who saw that coming? Did anybody see that coming? I did, but then again, I AM the author...

Anywho, just in case anyone's confused, Teresa is still under WICKED's control, so she was sent to Thomas and the othas do to a secret evil mission that you guys don't know about yet because of the evil plot bunnies.

MUAHA. HA. HA. *cough* HA. *gag* ah... yeah.

The thing about Minho and pancakes was me referring to this really funny fic called Pancakes by Blue Eyes Arch Angel. Gally finds Minho in the rain. With pancakes. It's really funneh and you should read it. Yarr.

I promise I'll try to update soon. I'm moving to another state in a WEEK so things are really hectic, and an update might not be as soon as you want it to be.

I'M SORRY.

I love you all. And you're amazing. Just...the way... you...are.

_-Lurky_


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